Hammer and Thunder
by Nightfoot
Summary: The Adephagos was destroyed, but all is not well in the Empire. Tensions are high, the new government is unstable, and rumours of a revolution run rampant. Battle lines are being drawn right through Zaphias, and it's time for Flynn and Yuri to figure out whose side they're on.
1. Distant Thunder

So I've been planning this story for literally over a year, but it keeps getting bumped back in the rotation. I've decided to just start posting it rather than wait to finish the whole thing, because now I'm committed to writing it in a timely manner. For this reason, it will have more irregular updates that the stories that I complete before posting. I consider this story the closest thing I'll ever write to a "sequel" to Tales of Vesperia, directly based on the consequences of the game. I hope you enjoy it.

* * *

 **Chapter One: Distant Thunder**

"Keep quiet," the man whispered to his companion.

"Tell that to the horse," she snapped back.

The wagon thumped over the bumpy street, making the barrels it carried rattle. A man and a woman sat at the front, dressed in working clothes and plain brown cloaks. The cloaks worked well for the job, because they went unnoticed as simple protection from the chilly spring night, while also concealing their faces.

"This is the turn," he said, pointing at a crossroad. "I think."

"You're not sure?"

"It's been a while since I was in Zaphias, dear." He spoke with a balance of disdain and annoyance that can only be found between a pair that is either fierce rivals or old lovers. At the end of the road was the broad door to a warehouse, where a single knight stood on duty. "See? I told you it was this way."

"What were you just saying about keeping quiet?" she whispered back. "Honestly."

They pulled up outside the warehouse. The knight looked around for a moment, and then pushed his helmet back. "Finally. I thought you weren't coming."

"Quiet," she snapped and hopped off the cart. "Is anyone else on duty?"

"No, ma'am."

The man climbed down as well and hefted a barrel off the back of the cart. It thumped heavily to the ground. "And no one suspects?"

"Nope. Far as anyone knows I still loyally salute the commandant." The knight stepped forward to help the man carry the barrel into the warehouse.

"Well, there's nothing wrong with that, per se," the man said. "It's not Flynn Scifo personally we have a problem with."

"He's certainly not helping," the woman said, dragging in a barrel of her own.

"The grain is over here," the knight said and directed them to a collection of identical barrels.

"You're certain these are the ones being sent to Mantaic?" the man asked.

The knight nodded. "Certain, sir."

"Good," the woman said. "Let's get a move on, then."

They didn't talk much while moving barrels around. There were ten barrels brimming with grain to be hauled out of the warehouse and onto their cart, and ten identical ones to be taken in. When they were done, the woman stepped back and brushed dark powder off her palms before placing them on her hips. "This seems satisfactory." If she hadn't known the barrels had been switched out, there would be no way to tell. Unless, of course, you opened them and discovered that the substance making them weigh the same was decidedly non-edible.

It was the perfect crime, the woman thought as they drove away. The sort where nobody realized a crime had taken place at all. Not until, of course, it was far too late.

* * *

 _I shouldn't be here_ , Flynn thought as he made his way through the lower quarter. He had so many duties to get back to in his office.

He had been good at math as a child, but it turned out he didn't properly understand exponents until his amount of responsibilities increased exponentially with each rank. He'd thought he was swamped as a captain, but as the commandant he had to squeeze free time from his schedule like getting water from a moist cloth. He had to wonder where Alexei had found the time to plot world domination. Even though he had a dozen potential disasters demanding his attention at the castle, he was here, in the lower quarter, acting as a tax collector. Maybe Estelle was right about him needing to delegate more, but this was a touchy situation. He could resolve the dispute personally better than anyone else. It was easy to vilify a faceless knight, but they'd listen to good ol' Flynn Scifo.

He misjudged the depth of a puddle of melting snow and ended up with cold water soaking into his boot. The houses were so close together on this street that the pale spring sky was just a slit straight above. Flynn reached his destination and knocked on the old wooden door.

It took a few minutes for Mr. Winder to answer. When he did, he kept one hand on the knob and glanced Flynn up and down like he was prepared for a fight. "What do you want?"

"Good afternoon, Mr. Winder. I came because I heard you got in a fight with a knight this morning."

"Yeah. What, you here to arrest me?"

Flynn heard a door open behind him and saw movement in surrounding windows. The street was watching. "I certainly don't want to. The trouble is, you haven't paid your taxes this month. The knight this morning was only trying to collect what you owe, and you hit him with a step stool."

"I paid my taxes," Mr. Winder growled.

"Actually, you paid the old tax rate. Perhaps you weren't properly informed, but due to the increase in government programs, we've had to increase the tax rate for all citizens."

"Oh, yeah, I heard about that. Bullshit, I decided. I've paid my taxes every month all my life, and I'll continue to pay what I've always paid."

"I understand that it can be annoying to have to pay more. But, it will be beneficial for you in the long run. The increase in tax money we're getting is going toward protecting the farms outside the city, managing water cleanliness, training doctors in non-blastia medicine, and many other programs that directly help you." Blastia disappearing had left holes in almost every branch of society, and Ioder had no choice but to try to plug the gap with money.

More doors were open and he glanced to the side to see neighbours standing on their doorsteps. Mr. Winder ignored the audience and said, "Listen. I don't care about what those bigwigs in the castle want to do. All I know is my little girl died last week and you wanted to take the money we needed to bury her."

"I'm very sorry for your loss. If you have extenuating circumstances, we would be happy to arrange-"

"You're not getting my money!" The door wobbled as Mr. Winder's anger shook his hand. "Oh, sure, the government is happy to accommodate us when it comes to taking our money, but where were you when the pestilence hit? You left us to rot down here!"

Flynn wanted to step back, but he had to remain professional. "Mr. Winder, the epidemic affected all quarters of the city. There were numerous deaths in the royal quarter as well." But it wasn't equivalent and he knew it. They'd relied on aque blastia to ensure clean water for so long that now that they were forced to get water from the river or dig wells, it had taken a while to figure out basic sanitation practices. Water contamination hadn't been an issue for so many generations that it took weeks to even realize the water was the source of the epidemic ripping through the populace. The lower quarter had gotten it the worst, of course. The higher in the city you went, the more you could afford to spend on making sure your water was clean. That wasn't even taking into account how disease had always hit the poorer quarter more acutely. "Besides, we need more tax income to prevent tragedies like this in the future. I'm trying to improve living conditions for the lower quarter, but I can't help if I don't have funding."

There was movement behind him and Flynn became aware that the audience was moving in. Residents of the street had left their homes and were beginning to gather around Mr. Winder's house. For a moment Flynn thought, I shouldn't have come down here alone. He brushed that away immediately - this was his home. Even when he had spats with other people in the lower quarter, he was still one of them. They didn't always get along, but lower quarter folk took care of their own and they'd always stand together against an outsider.

"If you're so keen on helping us," said one of the neighbours, "how come you've been having your knights kick us around?"

"You mean breaking up mobs threatening to breech the peace?" What else was he supposed to do about bands of people on the streets in crowded markets shouting about justice? Of course he supported justice, but blocking the streets and shouting about the evils of the Council were not going to achieve it. Flynn looked around at the angry glares and said, "I'm on your side! I know it's taking a while to reform the system, but these things take time. I can't just snap my fingers and change how the Empire is run - I'd need to be a tyrant to do that."

"Seems to me," said someone else, "that things are going _backwards_."

"That's right!" a woman called out. "What are you doing about the food shortage? My children are starving!"

Flynn wanted to say, 'There's a food shortage because we don't have blastia barriers to protect farms, but if you give us the tax money you owe we can afford to pay knights to protect those farms you stupid woman.' He didn't, because he hadn't gotten to be commandant by speaking his mind every time he got irritated. No, that would make him Yuri. Instead, he said, "We're doing everything we can to increase food production. You must know that it's been difficult since the blastia-"

"Then how come the rich people still have food?! You look as well fed as ever!"

"Because food is expensive and they can afford more of it. It's the same problem it's always been, just exaggerated." Flynn tried not to feel self-conscious about his body surrounded by the skinny residents of the lower quarter. He did tend to overeat in the castle when he wasn't thinking about it, because he'd grown up learning that you eat everything that's in front of you because you never knew for sure when there would be more. It was hard to break that habit even in an environment when more food could be summoned with the ring of a bell. "I know it's a problem. We're working on it."

"That's what you've been saying all winter," Mr. Winder said. "Always 'we're working on it'. That's what you said about the pestilence, too! Now our Lillian is dead 'cause you didn't work fast enough!"

There wasn't anything Flynn could do about disease, he wanted to complain. His job was to organize the Knights, and he couldn't actually fight an illness. To this angered crowd, that would just be taken as an excuse. "I'm so sorry for your loss. I will do everything in my power to prevent tragedies like this happening in the future."

"That's what it's always been," someone said. "You government types always promise to fix things in the future but that future never comes and we keep dying. We thought you were different, but you've gone and become another royal quarter sell out."

"I am not!" Flynn looked around at the small crowd on the street. "I know things have been hard since the blastia left. We lost the blastia and had a new commandant and new emperor at the same time. Things have been tricky! I'm trying my best but it's taking longer than I expected and-"

Mr. Winder's fist hit Flynn's face hard enough to make him stumble backward. "I'm tired of your excuses!"

Flynn fell into someone else who grabbed his arms. He used the voice that could coral armies in a thunder storm to yell, "Everybody settle down!"

Using the commandant voice had been a mistake. These weren't soldiers trained to defer to orders, they were people furious in the face of authority and upping the authority just upped their ire. He remembered his thoughts about the lower quarter always banding together against an outsider, and as the crowd gripped him tight and shouted layers of overlapping fury, he realized the outsider was now him.

"Traitor!"

"Went to the castle and now he's one of them!"

"More concerned with keeping his job than keeping us fed!"

"Just another knight."

"Don't know why we thought he'd be different."

They started moving, dragging Flynn with them. It was getting hard to see out of the eye rapidly swelling and even if he managed to pull away from one member of the mob, there was always someone else to grab hold. They shoved him forward, dragged him when he tried to plant his feet, and hollered for justice and vengeance loud enough to drown out his own furious shouts. He was glad he hadn't worn armour down here today. He'd avoided it because he wanted to diminish the impression of being just another knight, but the lower quarter had a long tradition of throwing tax collectors in the river.

"What's going on here?!" A voice cut through the crowd and the mob slower down near the end of the street.

"Move aside, old man," Mr. Winder growled.

"What are you lot doing making this hubbub?"

"It's justice!" a voice shouted, but then squeakily added, "uh, sir."

"Oh yeah?" Flynn recognized the voice now and smiled. "And who's the poor sap you're enacting your justice on now? Get out of my way you idiots."

They meekly parted and the ones holding Flynn pulled their hands away like he was suddenly on fire. Someone shoved him forward to get the red as far away from their hands as possible. Surprised, Flynn stumbled forward and tripped on a paving stone. He started to drop to his knees, but Hanks caught him. "What's the meaning of all this? Why gang up on Flynn of all people?"

"He's a traitor," someone muttered, but not loud enough for Hanks to pinpoint who it had been.

"Oh, I see how it is. Well, listen up, you lot - and spread the word so everyone else knows, too. If I catch any of you giving grief to Flynn Scifo - or any other knight who calls the lower quarter home - you'll be answering to me."

"Yeah, all right," Mr. Winder snarled. "But he won't come down here again if he knows what's good for him. We don't take kindly to sell-outs around here."

"Fair enough." Hanks tugged Flynn's arm and said, "Come on, then."

Flynn followed him away, not looking at the scowling crowd. Hanks led him through the narrow streets of the lower quarter until they came out at the main square. There used to be a fountain in the middle, but that had been torn down and dug up so they could dig a well. The ground around it was still dirt.

"You all right?" Hanks asked, stopping by a pillar.

Flynn leaned against it and nodded. One hand tentatively poked his swollen face and winced. That was going to be blue tomorrow. "Thanks."

"I don't think I have to tell you not to come down here anymore."

Flynn hung his head. "I shouldn't let myself be chased out."

"Your presence is just going to rile them up."

"I knew people were getting frustrated with me, but I had no idea it was this bad. I can't believe the amount of vitriol Mr. Winder had."

"Ah, well, his kid died recently. You know how it is. He's looking for someone to blame, and people can be a bit unreasonable about their kids."

After Flynn just stared glumly at his boots, Hanks added, "Look at it this way. You think they ever would have dared to do that to Alexei?"

"No." Was this supposed to cheer him up? It just made him feel worse about the fact that he couldn't even command respect from his own people, let alone the Council.

"That's a good thing. It means that even though they're mad at you, in their heart they still see you as Flynn, the local lad they're allowed to rough up."

"I… suppose."

"And they're madder with you _because_ they think of you as a local. Nobles are just born bad and what can you do about them? But you are our Flynn Scifo, and you're one of the good guys." Hanks pat his shoulder. "I know you'll pull things together in time. Just stay out of here until then, and you'll be welcomed back with open arms."

Flynn's smile didn't look sincere at all, but that was because his right eye was swelling up so he only smiled with the left half of his face. "I sure hope so."

* * *

Far away in Halure, Estelle awoke to an explosion, followed by the smell of smoke. Fearing Rita had put food in the oven and then forgotten about it while working, Estelle leapt out of bed and ran to the front room. She turned to the kitchen, but nothing was actively smoking, so she turned to Rita. "Is everything ok?"

Rita turned around with a grin and Estelle saw a patch of water soaking into the carpet and a charred splotch on the wooden worktable. "It's great!"

"It looks like you set your table on fire again, and I don't think that's very great." She didn't even know what time it was, but from comparing how dark it was outside to how long she felt like she'd been asleep, she guessed it was in that blurry area between 'ungodly late' and 'hellishly early'.

"I did it, Estelle!"

Estelle looked to the kitchen again to see if the coffee pot was out. She could have sworn she'd had a talk with Rita about not drinking coffee after dinner. She rubbed her eyes and then covered a yawn. "I'm really glad your experiment worked out, but I think you should go to bed now."

"I can't sleep now!" Of course she couldn't, she probably had caffeine marching through her brain banging cymbals. "Estelle, look!" She clasped something in her hand and then red light flashed in a rune circle around her. Fire burst forth and smashed into the curtains. "I did it!"

"You lit the house on fire!" Estelle grabbed a teapot on the counter, filled it from the sink as quickly as she could, and then threw it on the curtains before it could spread further. "Rita, you need to be more careful!"

Rita, who had clearly been awake for so long she no longer understood the correlation between actions and consequences, just kept grinning. "But did you see what I did?"

Now that she was assured the house wasn't going to burn down, Estelle had time to think about what had led to that problem in the first place and realized the incongruence with the course of events. "But… wait, you really did it?" Rita had been slaving over research to recreate blastia since last summer. Estelle had started to consider it a fool's errand, but here Rita was, standing next to a pair of scorch marks with the most self-satisfied grin imaginable. Estelle's face lit up and she threw herself at Rita in a bear hug. "Rita, that's wonderful!" She pulled back to look at the crystal in Rita's hand. It was blood-red and about the size of a fist. "How does it work?"

"Well, mana is basically condensed air. It's like if aer was steam, mana is water. It's fundamentally the same principle to manipulate it, you just have to adjust the ratios and apply a little extra force, but not too much that it explodes. I did it with the equation…"

Rita babbled on for over a minute, and Estelle kept nodding. She was pretty sure Rita didn't realize she wasn't following a single word of this. The important thing she took away was that it was basically the same as the old blastia, just not as powerful.

"…so now that it's complete I need to write my report." She started to reach for a pen, but Estelle grabbed her shoulders.

"No, you need to go to bed."

"But… I just make a huge breakthrough! I need to record my findings."

"You can do that in the morning." Which was only a few hours from now. She planted her hands on Rita's shoulders and steered her to her bedroom. "Go to sleep. Science will still be here when you wake up." Based on how little she fought back, her body obviously recognized that sleep was still a requirement for functioning even if her brain had forgotten.

* * *

Yuri hadn't been to Zaphias since last fall, and new leaves had come to the trees as they approached the gates now. It had been a long flight from Mantaic, and the guild was ready to get some grub at the Comet and then crash. They could worry about the recipient for their delivery job tomorrow. The wooden doors of the city walls were still hanging open, and two knights stood guard. This section of the wall was made of stone, but most of the city was still surrounded by the wooden walls they'd hastily erected after the barriers disappeared last summer.

"Halt," one of the knights said as they started to enter. "Names and reason for visiting."

"Huh?" Karol looked between them in a confusion Yuri shared. Knights were on guard to close the gates if monsters approached the city, not to keep out other people. "Why do you need to know that?"

"There a reason you don't want to tell us?" the other knight asked with suspicion.

"What? No! I'm Karol Capel, and we're from the guild Brave Vesperia. We have a parcel to deliver from a craftsman in Dahngrest." He held up the package wrapped in brown paper in his arms.

"And your associates?"

"That's Judith and Yuri Lowell."

"And Repede," Yuri pointed out. "Seriously, what's going on? I used to live here, and you guys have never bothered about who comes or goes before."

"These are new security regulations," the knight said. "Now, you'll all be fined five thousand gald apiece for attempting to openly carry lethal weapons into the city. Hand them over." He held out his hand, but Yuri pulled his sword tighter.

"Fined for _what_ now?"

"You were told the new rules at Deidon Hold. You'll be given a ticket and you can pick them up tomorrow when you pay the fine."

The other knight approached and Judith gripped her spear with an expression that said, _go ahead. Try to take this from me._

"Whoa, hold on!" Karol hurriedly stepped between the knight and Judith before a fight could break out. "No one told us any rules. We didn't come through Deidon Hold, we flew in with an Entelexeia!"

The knights glanced to the sky and saw Ba'ul drifting overhead and exchanged a look. "Huh… well… not knowing the rules isn't an excuse to break them. We still need to confiscate your weapons, but if you really didn't know, I'll let the fine slide."

"You're not taking my sword," Yuri said.

The knight's hand rested on his own sword. "If you resist, I'll have no choice but to arrest you."

"Let it go, Yuri," Karol said. "We don't want any trouble. We can pick them up tomorrow and you can talk to Flynn about it."

Yuri hesitated, but then he sighed and reluctantly held out the blade. "If you say so, boss."

"Thank you," the knight said, while his partner filled out three slips of paper and handed them over. "Take these to the armoury tomorrow morning and your weapons will be given back to you with a pass giving you a one hour window with which to take them to your place of residence."

Yuri snatched his ticket with a scowl. "Gee, thanks. So what exactly is this rule about weapons?"

"No items classified as lethal weapons are allowed in public spaces within Zaphias without an official license to use them for a designated purpose."

"I see," he said icily. He and Flynn were going to have some words.

"All right, go along, have a nice visit."

"I'm sure we will," Yuri sniped as they walked by.

Once they left the gate, Karol looked to Yuri. "What was that all about?"

"I don't know, but something's going on." It wasn't just the guards at the gate that confirmed this. Yuri had spent his whole life in Zaphias until recently, and a non-insignificant portion of that had been spent living on the streets. When you didn't have a roof to barricade yourself under, you learned how to read the tension of the street like a dog predicting thunderstorms. That tension was crackling like static in the air now, noticeable in the way people walked and where their eyes went. It was only early evening, but there weren't many people on the street. Even the vendors had packed up early, though he noticed from the signs posted behind them that food prices here were as high as they were in Dahngrest.

The Comet was quieter than usual, too. It was as busy as ever, but instead of loud chatter, the patrons sat in close circles having serious conversations. The crowd looked to the door when they entered, but instead of seeing familiar Yuri and going back to their conversations, he got a lot of looks that could only be called suspicious. Yuri glanced around the room in confusion; he'd known these people all his life and he'd been out of town all winter. What the hell had he done to get people upset with him?

"Evening," Yuri said to the innkeeper. "What's up with everyone tonight?"

Her smile was tight-lipped. "Oh, you know, lots going on in Zaphias these days."

"It seems like people are upset about something," Judith said.

"Upset?" The innkeeper raised her eyebrows. "Heavens, what would we have to complain about? Do you need a room for your friends, Yuri?"

"Yeah," Yuri said slowly. After how long he'd known her, he could spot a lie a mile away. He was less curious about what the hubbub was about than why nobody wanted to tell him about it.

After exchanging money for keys, they headed up to their rooms. "Man," Karol said as he unlocked the door, "what's going on in Zaphias lately?"

"I dunno." Yuri leaned against the doorway to his room. "But I'm going to find out. You guys stay here; I'll just pop up to the castle and talk to Flynn."

He'd hoped that spending more time in the city would bring clarity to the issues, but if anything he was more confused. He'd never seen fewer people on the streets compared with this many knights. As he was leaving the lower quarter, he passed a group of knights scrubbing some paint off the wall. They were too far along to make out what the graffiti had been, but since when was cleaning part of a knight's duties?

When he got to the castle, the gates were closed and a pair of knights stood on guard duty. This wasn't too unusual considering the sun had now set, but the knights drew their swords when he walked up the steps to their post.

"Move along," one of them said.

"Whoa, calm down." Yuri held out his hands to prove he was unarmed. "I'm just here to talk to Flynn."

"After working hours, you must have a scheduled engagement to be allowed entry. We weren't notified of any evening visitors tonight."

"What? Estelle put me on the guest list over a year ago."

"Be that as it may," the other knight said, "if you don't have a scheduled meeting with the commandant, you will have to return tomorrow."

"Fine. I'll do that." He whirled around and briskly returned to the street. What the hell was going on? Well, he'd never taken a closed door as an absolute before. There was a section of the castle well that was pretty easy to climb, and conveniently close to Flynn's room. He used it sometimes when he didn't feel like talking to the guards at the gate, or when he wanted to scare the shit out of Flynn by showing up in his bedroom.

There was was mansion right next door which let him shimmy up between the two walls, and then use the battlements as handholds to swing his legs over the top, then use a buttress as a bridge over the moat. On the other side, a tree was the perfect aid in getting to the garden. His feet landed on the grass with a thud, and then he brushed his hands on his shirt and headed for Flynn's room. It was on the third floor, but there was a tree outside that made it easy to reach the window to his bedroom.

Yuri walked around a corner to the tree and came face to face with a pair of knights patrolling the other way.

"Hey!" one of them said.

For a second, instinct told him to run. Then logic reminded him that the knights were already less than three feet in front of him and there was no way he had enough of a head-start to climb over the wall again. He braced himself for one of them to tackle him to the ground. There had never been knights patrolling the garden like this before, once again leading him to ask: what the _hell_?

"Hey, chill out." They quickly handcuffed him. "I was just trying to talk to Flynn, it's not like I'm an assassin."

"Trying to get to the commandant, eh?" One of them held his arms while the other patted him down. After patting him down and finding no weapons, he said, "Well, you're either the world's worst assassin, or telling the truth."

Yuri was about to point out that them not finding any weapons could actually mean he was the world's best assassin, but decided his future would turn out a lot better if he let that comment go unvoiced.

"You're under arrest for trespassing."

Yuri sighed. "Figures. Look, can you just tell Flynn I'm here? All I want is to talk to him."

The shoved him forward to begin a march to what would inevitably be the jail cells. "The commandant is finished with work for today. He'll be informed tomorrow morning."

Yuri rolled his eyes. Great. Just what the hell was going on in Zaphias?


	2. Rebels

**Chapter Two: Rebels**

Flynn glanced at the clock when he entered his office. It was five minutes to eight; good, he was early. There was a Council meeting in an hour, and he was expected to show up at the beginning of it to report on the Knights' activities. He had an hour to sort through his mail and get started on the day's work. It wasn't even work for today - it wouldn't be relevant for months.

As a knight, he'd taken care of the job in front of him, and even as a captain he concerned himself just with the immediate concerns of his brigade. Now he had a weather report saying there had been an unusual amount of rain in Hypionia, leading to increased food supply for herbivorous monsters. Scientists assured him that this meant he could expect a boom in monsters next spring in reaction to the more plentiful prey animals, so he should start planning countermeasures to protect Aurnion. It was incredible to think that something as mild as the weather on a different continent could impact his job today.

"Good morning, sir," came a chipper voice as Alice entered the office. She had a stack of papers in one hand and a mug of coffee in the other.

"Good morning. Thank you." The coffee mug warmed his fingers as he took it. No matter what time he arrived, his personal assistant always had a hot cup of coffee exactly the way he liked it. He was starting to think she had a super power.

"Here are the documents that came in the mail for you today. Also, I was told to inform you that the knights apprehended an intruder on the palace grounds."

"Again?" He sat behind his desk and frowned. It had only been two weeks ago that they apprehended some madman with a knife trying to get into the castle. "Was anyone hurt?"

"No, the intruder was unarmed. He claimed he was trying to reach you."

That didn't surprise Flynn. With his popularity these days, assassination attempts were an expectation. Still, she said the man was unarmed, which was unusual. Why would someone try to reach him if they didn't have any way to harm him? Unless that meant this was actually a cunningly brilliant assassin who planned to kill him bare-handed. "How did he get in?"

"They believe he scaled the walls. The knights stopped him in the garden when he was presumably headed to your window."

Damn, he'd been meaning to up the security there. Yuri had explained how he always got in, but with everything else going on he just hadn't had time to make it a priority. He'd stationed extra knights in the garden, which at least seemed to be effective. He was going to have to warn Yuri not to… "Oh, hold on. Did you get his name?"

"No, sir."

He set his mug on the desk and stood up. "I need to go check on something. That's all for now, thank you."

Flynn made his way through the castle to the jail cells. He got the key from the guard on duty, and he came to a stop when he found what he was looking for in the third cell down. "Good morning."

"Well, look who decided to show up." Yuri sat on the wooden bench, looking as unkempt as a man who'd spent an entire day travelling and then was thrown in jail overnight without a chance to settle down. "With all the changes around here, I was starting to think we weren't friends anymore."

There were other people in surrounding cells, so Flynn unlocked Yuri's door. "Come on, let's talk in my office."

The other prisoners gave Yuri dirty looks as Flynn opened the door and led him away. He gave the keys back to the jailer and Yuri followed him into the castle proper. "I'm partially sorry, but I should point out that sneaking into the castle is indeed illegal."

"I've never been arrested before."

"You mean you've never been caught before."

"What is with all the extra security around here? And Zaphias in general. I know something's up, but what is it?"

"Let's wait until we sit down."

He led the way to his office and when they sat down, Yuri helped himself to Flynn's coffee. He wrinkled his nose and set it down. "Ew, how much sugar did you put in this?"

Flynn sat behind his desk and pulled his mug protectively close. "None. It's just black coffee."

"That's disgusting."

"Saturating your coffee with so much sugar it turns into slush is what's disgusting, and also an insult to good coffee beans."

"You know there's a type of coffee that gets pooped out by a cat, and you think sugar is the greatest insult to the beans?"

"Sugar is expensive now," he muttered, and then felt guilty for it. He was the last person who should be complaining about the new taxes." He took a sip of the coffee which really would have been nice with just a tiny bit of sugar, but growing up poor made it so hard to justify spending so much money on something he didn't need. "Anyway, it's been a while since you were in town. Things have changed."

"I noticed. You want to explain this, too?" He slapped a note on the desk and Flynn saw a now-familiar weapon ticket.

He sighed. "Yeah. Things have gotten… difficult. If you had let me know you were coming I would have warned you."

"What's going on, Flynn? With all the security you'd think you were preparing for war."

"That's not too far from the mark."

Yuri's eyes narrowed in concern. "I thought Ioder and Harry had worked out an agreement?"

"They have. No, our crisis comes from within. Do you remember last fall when people started complaining about the government?"

Yuri nodded. "Let me guess; those complaints got more heated?"

"That's putting it lightly."

It had all started with the closing of so many farms. The barriers disappeared and suddenly farmers couldn't protect their land and fled to the cities. There was only so much space available within city walls to grow food. Ioder had organized a government sponsored farm just outside the city with wooden walls and knights to patrol the fields, but Flynn could only spare so many soldiers so it couldn't possibly be large enough to feed everyone. Almost a million people lived in Zaphias, and they simply didn't have the resources to feed all of them.

Considering the food crisis, it had almost been a blessing when an epidemic of cholera claimed so many lives over the winter. It was a water issue, he was given to understand. They'd relied on aque blastia to purify water for so long that they'd forgotten how to properly treat their water without it. Immune systems weakened by malnutrition struggled to fight it off. It was mostly under control now, and the streets were peppered with public service announcements reminding everyone to boil their water before using it, but a lot of people still pointed fingers at the government for allowing it to happen in the first place.

Ioder and the rest of the government were trying to get everything stable again. The trouble was, they needed resources to fix things. Even with support from the guilds, Flynn needed more knights to deal with the monsters and additional protection for towns, and that wouldn't change until they finished constructing walls of stone around all the towns. Those walls took money, and so did hiring scientists to work on the food problem to figure out how to get the most food per square acre as possible. The increase in expenses inevitably led to an increase in taxes, which did little for moral.

"The plan was to put heavier taxes on non-essential items so that we could take in revenue from those who could afford luxuries while still making necessities affordable. Things like alcohol, sugar, and tea. There's now a black market for those items, for those who aren't otherwise boycotting them on principle."

"I remember people were talking about sending angry letters to the Council. At his coronation, Ioder made a big deal about wanting to listen to the common people, and they were pissed because they felt like he was ignoring them."

Flynn nodded. "His Majesty really is trying his best. It's just that there are a lot of problems to deal with, and often the people's suggestions wouldn't be feasible. Mostly they want lower taxes, but without tax money, we can't afford to keep the city safe. There aren't many knights who will keep working if they stop getting paid. Plus we need a new budget to manage sanitation now that the blastia are gone, and it's because of the additional expenses the government has put into public health that the epidemic has passed, but do people appreciate that? No."

Yuri crossed his arms. "So, what, people got mad that you're taxing them too much so you took away their right to carry a weapon?"

"No, that came after a riot three weeks ago. They were protesting the price of bread and things got… out of hand." Flynn folded his hands on his desk and frowned. "The merchants they were screaming at brought in their caravan guards to disperse them. The protesters didn't want to disperse, so I sent in knights to keep the peace. But that just got everyone mad and protesting turned into a riot…."

"I think I see where this is going."

"One person was trampled to death and there were several other injuries. After that, the Council passed a law forbidding civilians to carry weapons in public."

"So when are you going to disarm the Knights?"

"What?"

"If the public can't carry weapons, shouldn't that apply to knights, too?"

Flynn shook his head. "The knights still carry weapons to deal with the law breakers who do."

"And gee, I wonder why people would want to break the law and carry a weapon in the face of armed knights?"

He had known Yuri wouldn't like this. "It's a safety precaution. If you're not breaking the law, you have nothing to fear from armed knights."

"Yeah, that's what the guys with weapons always say. What the hell, Flynn, did you seriously think this was a good way to calm people down?"

"It wasn't my idea." His coffee wasn't doing much to comfort him as he gripped it. "I don't make the laws, Yuri. My job is to enforce them."

"You could have chosen not to enforce this one."

"No, I couldn't. The commandant cannot pick and choose which laws to enforce. That's a precedent leading directly to corruption and abuse."

"Oh, yeah?" Yuri leaned forward. "Suppose the Council makes a law that every third-born person has to be killed to control the population. Would you do it?"

"Of course not!"

Yuri sat back with satisfaction. "There, see? You just proved you're ok with disobeying orders you don't agree with."

Flynn drummed his fingers on his mug. "Defying the Council is a huge step. It would cause chaos and unrest. I would only do it in extreme circumstances. Ioder is trying to reform the legislative side of the government while I reform the Knights, and there are going to be hurdles before we get everything worked out. For now, we have to go along with the Council or the whole structure could collapse into anarchy. Anyway, this law isn't permanent. It's only until all this dies down."

"And what is…" Yuri waved his arms, "'this'?"

Flynn opened a draw and rustled through his files. "It's this." He pulled out a folder and pushed a paper across the desk. "Have you seen this emblem?"

It was a black stencil of a sun inside a circle. Yuri examined it for a moment, and then his eyes lit up. "Oh! I think I saw some knights scrubbing something like a corner of this off a wall." He pushed it back. "What's it stand for?"

"They're calling themselves the Agents of Liberty. I'm still trying to ascertain exactly who they are, but they started showing up over the winter. There'd been a lot of dissatisfaction and peaceful protesting, but then they appeared and started stirring up trouble." He presented a folded sheaf of paper. "These pamphlets keep showing up."

The sun emblem covered the front, and inside was a lot of bold text and exclamation marks screaming about the mistakes of the government. The most annoying thing was that none of them were outright lies. Flynn felt that they were lies in spirit, though, because nothing that distorted reality to that extent deserved the title 'truth'. Things like the growing number of knights, which was a response to monsters and not, as the pamphlet implied, a preparation to crush the common citizen under an iron boot.

"What exactly do they want?" Yuri scanned the pamphlet quickly. "This is offering a lot of problems but no solutions."

"From what I can tell, they want to completely overthrow the government and impose a communist utopia. Or maybe or fascist utopia. I'm not actually sure."

Yuri handed it back. "Radical revolutionaries, huh? Any idea how many there are?"

"That's the problem. At this point I don't know if they actually have serious plans or if they're all bang and no buck. They haven't actually done anything, but wherever we can trace their influence, protests get louder. The Council is on my ass to catch their leader, but I don't know if they even have a leader." There had been that assassin who tried to get into the castle to kill Ioder two weeks ago. He'd been interrogated extensively, but though he claimed to have been inspired by the Agents, he wasn't one of them and didn't have a clue who was in charge.

"Geeze, things sure have gotten messy around here. Any idea why the guys in the Comet gave me dirty looks last night? I've hardly been in town long enough to piss anyone off."

Flynn sighed and put the folder away again. "They're probably afraid you're spying for me. I'm not welcome in the lower quarter anymore."

"What? 'Course you are! You're still one of us."

"Not anymore. That was made clear last week when I got a black eye and was explicitly told I wasn't welcome down there anymore."

Yuri slammed his fist on the desk. "Who's the jerk?"

"It doesn't matter. There was a whole group of them and based on some of the other looks I got, they weren't alone in their thought."

"They can't just excommunicate you from the neighbourhood."

"It's all right, Yuri." It wasn't. Getting exiled from his own community had hurt far more than the punch. "They're understandably upset with the Knights. I'm doing everything I can to maintain order, and hopefully everything will sort itself out soon."

"I wouldn't bet on it."

Flynn grimaced. "We can hope." He didn't want to think Yuri was right, but he didn't live under a rock.

* * *

Flynn left the Council meeting feeling frustrated. No, he hadn't arrested the chief instigator of these Agents of Liberty rebels yet. Yes, the jail cells were filling up with people breaking the weapons law, but that didn't mean he had a dozen terrorists to interrogate. Most of them were young people being defiant, old people who insisted their battle axes were family heirlooms and not weapons, and at least one case of a woman who consistently argued that he foot long machete was a cooking implement and she used it to slice bread. Flynn felt guilty about fining most of the others or holding them in the cells for further incidents, but considering that woman had been stopped while trying to climb into her ex-husband's bedroom window at midnight with her "bread knife", Flynn didn't feel too bad about arresting her.

The problem was that the arrest rate had gone up. To the Council, this meant the Knights were obviously being more effective and catching more criminals, so why weren't any of those criminals the ones they were looking for? What had actually happened was that the number of things you could be arrested for had expanded, and now included things that vilified ordinary citizens and not necessarily revolutionary plotters or terrorists. Flynn expected to start catching actual rebels soon, because arresting ordinary citizens on suspicion of treason was a great way to inspire future traitors.

"Commandant!" A woman pushed through the crowd exiting the Council chamber. "Excuse me, Commandant?"

He looked her way when she hurried up to walk beside him, but he didn't stop walking. "Can I help you, Lady Alkaev?"

Flynn recognized her as a Councilwoman, but that was about it. She had only been on the Council since last spring, after inheriting her position from the father. Flynn wasn't completely up to date on Council gossip, but he was fairly sure the late Lord Alkaev had succumbed to the epidemic.

"Please, call me Reinette." She smiled and held out her hand, which Flynn shook while walking. "I tried to arrange a meeting with you, but your secretary told me you weren't free until late next week."

"That's correct. I'm sorry, I'm really very busy lately."

"Then how about I talk to you on your way back to your office?"

He'd rather not, because the walks between meetings and work were some of his few breaks, but he recognized the hungry spark in her eyes and knew she wasn't someone who could be easily shaken off. "Very well."

"Capital! I'll keep this short." She brushed a thin ringlet that had fallen out of her bun away from her face. "As you may be aware, I've recently become the president of Alkaev Medical, the second largest distributer of gels in Terca Lumireis."

Flynn nodded slowly. "Right… just after Fortune's Market." He was vaguely familiar with them, if only because her father had raised a huge fuss about the Knights not allotting enough resources to defend their orchards when they lost the barriers.

"Correct. We are the largest medical supplier based in the Empire. Currently, the Knights have a contract with Fortune's Market for mass supplies of gels. I would like to propose Alkaev for your gel supplies. We are local, which means our profits remain within the Empire and create job opportunities for Imperial citizens, rather outsourcing to the guilds. Since we are chiefly located in Zaphias, we can also cut down on shipping fees which will result in lower costs for you. What do you think?"

Reinette had spoken so quickly he barely had time to process everything. It had all sounded perfect, but she had mastered that tone of voice that made any business proposition sound stellar and he wasn't going to pledge himself to something based on a shiny sales pitch. However, purchasing supplies from within the Empire rather than Fortune's Market did sound like a good idea. "That's an interesting proposition, Lady Alkaev."

"Please, just Reinette."

"I can't commit myself to an agreement while walking in the hall, but I would certainly be interested in discussing this with you in detail at a later date. Unfortunately, I really am busy until next week, but I'll tell Alice to find room for an appointment with you as soon as possible."

"Thank you for your time, Commandant!" They had just reached his office when she gave him another smile and walked away. She had certainly timed that well.

Inside his office, Alice was waiting for him. "Good morning, sir. Did your meeting go well?"

Was it really still morning? Flynn glanced at the clock and saw the hour hand creeping toward the eleven. Damn. "Yes, thank you. Did Reinette Alkaev approach you about arranging a meeting with me?"

Alice nodded. "Yes, sir. Would you like me to schedule an appointment?"

"Yes, please, as early as possible."

"Is this a meeting I should schedule right before an important one so you have an escape excuse?"

"No, I actually do want to talk to her."

"All right, sir. Now, you have five minutes to get to your meeting with Emperor Ioder regarding his upcoming trip to Mantaic."

Flynn slapped his forehead. "Ack, that's today. Thanks for the reminder; I'll be on my way."

"Have a good meeting, sir."

He hadn't even sat at his desk before turning around and walking out. Everything was so fast-paced lately. It seemed like everyone in the city wanted to meet with him over one problem or another, and no one understood that if he was constantly in meetings he never had time to actually work on the problems they wanted fixing. Worst of all, Ioder was going to be out of town for a whole week, which to Flynn meant his number one source of support was going to leave him with the sharks - that is, the Council.

Not that he didn't understand the importance of the Mantaic trip, of course. Food shortages had been a problem in all the major cities, but Mantaic had been hit the hardest. They relied so heavily on shipments from more fertile continents and when food cuts had to be made, it was the supplies being sent away that got cut first. It was lucky that Nordopolica had stepped in and provided reasonable prices to keep the citizens from starving, but Mantaic was rightfully feeling ignored by the Empire. There was a fear they may start questioning why they even remained part of the Empire as such a distant outpost, so Ioder was heading there on a diplomatic mission trip to prove he still paid attention to them.

He knocked on the door to Ioder's study.

"Enter."

Flynn stepped into the room lined with mahogany bookshelves. "Good morning, Your Majesty."

Ioder sat behind his dark wooden desk, with a flag bearing the Imperial crest hanging on the wall behind him. "Good morning, Flynn." He smiled as he straightened papers on his desk. He'd also been at the Council meeting, so he'd just arrived as well. "Please, take a seat. I hope the Council meeting wasn't too frustrating."

Sitting down, Flynn held back a sigh. "It was… vexing."

Ioder smiled lightly. "I know what you mean. It's annoying, isn't it? They're desperate to get back to the status quo of before the Adephagos."

"I can't blame them for that. I'd love for everything to stabilize, but we can't just pass laws telling angry people they're not allowed to be angry anymore and think that's going to fix things. It's like closing your eyes and expecting the problem to go away."

"It was a difficult winter," Ioder said. "But things will get better from here. Cholera is under control, we can grow more food now that winter is over… I think we've already been through the worst."

"I certainly hope so." Flynn smiled, but all he could think was that warmer weather would make people more willing to stand outside protesting. Thinking about his conversation with Yuri, he said, "Do you have any idea when we can lift the weapons ban?" Ioder couldn't pass laws by himself, but he could strongly push them along.

"For a little longer, at least. People are still restless."

"Yes, but part of the reason they're restless is that they hate the law."

Ioder frowned and folded his hands on his desk. "It's a difficult balance. I want people to know that I'm listening to their concerns, but I can't let them think that whenever they dislike something, I'll cave if they protest enough. I haven't even been emperor for a year yet - I need to prove that I can be firm and stick to my decisions or else I'll spend the rest of my reign struggling to keep control."

"I understand. We're in a difficult situation."

"Yes. Oh, I saw you talking to Reinette Alkaev earlier. What did she want?"

"She proposed a contract with her company for medical supplies. Why do you ask?"

Ioder nodded slowly. "That sounds reasonable. I was just concerned, because I don't know very much about her but some of the gossip I've heard is… not that great."

Flynn frowned. "Such as?"

"She has an older brother. He was supposed to inherit their father's Council seat and company, but somehow it ended up going to her instead. No one is quite sure of the details but some sort of foul play is suspected. It seems she's quite cunning, so stay on your guard around her."

"Thank you, I'll keep that in mind."

"Another thing. Latest reports suggest the knights stationed in Mantaic are feeling similarly ignored. I was thinking you should accompany me and secure loyalty in both the knights and the civilians."

"Are you sure? With all due respect, it might be better for me to stay in Zaphias."

"Yes, but with everything going on, we don't have the resources to send a second ship to Mantaic any time soon. If you're going to go, you need to go now."

"Hm…" He didn't like the idea of leaving the city, but perhaps this was what Yuri called his 'control freak' side. He didn't want to leave anyone else in charge because he thought he was the only one capable of taking care of the city. Zaphias would not explode if he wasn't physically present for a single week. Besides, the emperor was asking him to go. How could he decline? "Very well, sir. I'll call Captain Sodia back to the city and leave her in charge in my absence."

* * *

Yuri had his sword in hand as he walked back to the lower quarter. Unhappily, he also had a ticket in hand. It gave him a one hour pass to carry a weapon so he could take it from the castle to his house, and damn near every knight he passed stopped him to ask for it. They held him up so much he feared his hour would be up before he reached the lower quarter.

As he was crossing the square in the lower quarter, a voice shouted, "Yuri! Hey, Yuri!" Seconds later, a small figure dashed toward him.

"Hey, Ted."

"I didn't know you were back in town! It's been ages!" He threw his arms out for dramatic effect.

"Yeah, sorry, we've been pretty busy in Dahngrest."

"You were lucky to be in Dahngrest. Things are getting crazy here."

"Tell me about it." Yuri looked around the street, which was less crowded than usual. "You're still ok, though, yeah?"

"Ah…" Ted's smile plummeted and he inspected his shoes. "Actually… um, my mom passed away last winter."

Yuri's cavalier attitude fell just as fast. "Oh, geeze… I'm sorry, Ted." He knew the kid better than he knew his mom, but he'd had enough conversations with her to know that the lower quarter wouldn't feel quite the same without her. "What happened?"

"It was the plague." Ted dragged his head up. "A lot of people died. It was… a really long winter."

"Sounds like it. I'm sorry I was gone."

"It's ok. I know you had important stuff to do with your guild."

"I wouldn't have been gone for so long if I knew things would get this crazy."

Ted followed him across the square toward the Comet. When they were nearly there, someone called out, "Ted! Oh, Yuri, hello."

Yuri turned his head to see a man striding past the fountain. "Hey, Tom. How you been?"

All three stopped at the top of the stairs and Tom said, "Did you pick up the milk like I asked you to, Ted?"

Ted rolled his eyes with a sense of drama only seen in twelve-year-olds. "Yes, Dad."

"Tom… I heard about your wife. I'm sorry."

Tom's face tightened. "Ah… thanks. Ted, why don't you run along home? You didn't clean the kitchen like I asked you."

"Awww, all right."

"Thank you." He watched Ted run off with a smile and then said, "Yuri, come sit down and have a drink."

Yuri glanced at the Comet. "You sure? Folks didn't seem too happy to see me in there yesterday."

Tom waved his hand and walked down the steps. "Oh, you know, people have to be a little on guard these days, eh?"

"Do they?" He followed Tom into the inn. He got a few more distrusting glances, but since he was accompanied by Tom, they let it slide. These assholes were really going to turn on him just because they thought he was on Flynn's side? That thought was immediately replaced by, _hey, wait a minute, there isn't even a 'Flynn's side' to be on_. Flynn's side was the one trying to keep the peace and maintain order, and that seemed like a neutral enough side.

They sat at a table against the wall and Tom took a minute to fetch drinks. He returned with two beers and then said, "You know about the situation here, yeah?"

"Flynn explained everything this morning."

Tom nodded slowly. "Yeah… you know, I wouldn't go around talking about how you're talking with Flynn. Some of the guys around here, well… they think you might be spying for him."

"That's ridiculous."

"Look at it from their point of view. Flynn recently got kicked out of the lower quarter, and now his best friend shows up again after being gone for months?"

"I'm not spying for Flynn. If I talk to him, it's because we're friends and we talk about things. Besides, what would I even be spying on?"

Tom rested his hands on the table and idly glanced around the room. "Well, you know… things are happening."

Yuri frowned after sipping his drink. "'Things'? What kind of things?"

"It's like this. You know last fall we were talking about how the Council is corrupt? How putting Ioder on the throne didn't change the mess that is the Council?"

Yuri nodded. "Sure." He recalled describing it as putting a bow on top of a dung heap. In the weeks before he left for Dahngrest, there had been a lot of late nights with his old friends in the lower quarter, throwing around ideas for how the Council could be fixed. These nights were greased with alcohol and by the time anyone had been talking long enough to reach a conclusion, they were so tipsy they only landed on 'thing's're screwed, man.'

"Things have been getting more serious. You know about all these new taxes? They said they were taxing 'luxury goods'. What that means is you now have to pay out your nose if you want to eat anything other than bread and vegetables. Even the people who can afford it are boycotting sugar on principle."

"Well… the government needs the money, right?" Flynn's words from this morning echoed in his head. He trusted Flynn to have the people's best interest at heart, but he also knew that the best interest for society as a whole could easily make things worse for those on the fringes.

"We know taxes are needed. Every stupid speech Flynn or Ioder has given sounds like they think they're talking to whining children. We want to give the government our money and have them turn that around and provide us with protection and resources. That's how it should be. But, look, there are fifty nobles on the Council, right? Only nobles. These fifty people with titles and land and family trees bigger than Halure's get to decide all the policies that affect the entire rest of the Empire. That is what we have a problem with. We're being asked to hand over our money and just trust that these rich nobles will use it responsibly."

"And you can't trust them to." That wasn't a question. Yuri trusted Flynn, and he was pretty sure Ioder at least had good intentions, but that was the limit of his good feelings toward the imperial government.

"Exactly. The policies chosen by the Council affect the entire Empire, so why doesn't the entire Empire get a say in them?"

All of this… actually sounded pretty good. Yuri's dream ever since he was a kid was to make the world a place where the upper-classes couldn't abuse the lower-classes whenever they felt like it. He'd tried reaching that goal through the Knights, but when that didn't work he'd switched to the guilds and decided to take care of little picture problems to free up Flynn's time to fix the big picture ones. If the lower quarter as a whole rose up, though, rather than just him and Flynn trying to change things, maybe they actually could make a difference.

Well… maybe. It would be nice if it would work. Yuri loved living in Dahngrest where the leaders of the guilds who ran the city got to their position through work and ability rather than birth. It worked in Dahngrest, though, because free-thinkers had broken off from the Empire and started their own society. It was a lot harder to change an existing government than to cut your losses and start fresh. He'd experienced that himself when he gave up on the Knights and started a guild instead. "And how do you plan to accomplish this?"

Tom's determination faltered. "Ah… well, it's going to be difficult. We're boycotting the unfair taxes now. We won't pay them, and we won't buy the products that require them. At this point, it's still a minority of us who are serious about change. We're focusing on awareness and spreading the word - getting the rest of the city on our side, you know? It's going to take a while, but I'm sure that if we keep at it, eventually we'll enact change." He smiled and added, "Maybe too late for me to enjoy, but hopefully I can help create a better world for my son." He frowned at his beer. "The trouble is, even with everyone on our side, we don't have the strength to oppose the Council directly. As long as Flynn and the Knights take their side, all we can do is make noise. You're his friend, Yuri - talk to him. Get him on our side. With the force of the Knights, we could oust the Council with ease!"

Yuri had been going along with this until he suggested using the Knights to oust the Council with force. That was a short road toward civil war, and Yuri was nowhere near optimistic enough to think the changes they could make through it would be worth the lives lost. "I'm not going to be your go-between with Flynn. If you want to talk to him, invite him down here to talk to him yourself."

Tom scowled. "We've already tried. We asked him to side with us against the Council, but he went off on some crap about not wanting to lead a coup against Ioder. It's not Ioder we have a problem with, it's the rotten Council he can't seem to wrangle in. I don't know who these Agents of Liberty are, but I gotta say I like 'em. I just hope they have the arms to back up their claims."

Fantastic. His friends from the lower quarter were siding with dangerous revolutionaries and Flynn was siding with the Council. "Well, Tom, all I've gleaned from any of this is that it's a huge mess and you can count me out."

"You don't want to stand by your people?"

"I think if you keep going down this path it's gonna end in bloodshed."

"Maybe. But it seems to me that some sacrifices might have to be made to pave the way for a better tomorrow. We can't sit back and do nothing because we're afraid we might get hurt."

"Yeah, but this isn't a battlefield with warriors you're talking about. When shit goes down, it's going to be on the streets of Zaphias, where civilians and kids live. Are you prepared to risk some of them getting hurt? Ted's one of those children, you know."

Tom's fingers drummed the side of his mug. "Of course I'd rather not, but if it's the only way…."

Yuri drained the rest of his drink and thudded it on the table. That was the last straw. He was all for proper representation in the government and heaven knew he was no fan of the Council, but he couldn't bring himself to support any side that claimed 'if it's the only way' in regards to civil war and innocent bloodshed. "Do what you want, but I'm not getting involved. I'm not going to go running to Flynn with this information, but don't count on me to help you fight him, either."

"Suit yourself."

"I need to get home before my ticket for this sword expires." He strode out of the Comet, feeling worried. A new, fairer government would be great, but he had his doubts that it would be as great as Tom claimed. As much as he liked Dahngrest, it wasn't a utopia. The five main guild leaders ran the city and everyone else's voice was barely heard over them. Any kind of system they set up would inevitably end with a ruling class and a ruled class, and the people in the ruling class would always have the same chance of being philanthropists or scumbags. Yuri couldn't support the idea of resorting to violence and risking hundreds of lives just to watch their supposed victorious new government run right back into oppression.

* * *

In another tavern in another part of the lower quarter, a dark-haired woman sipped a blood-red cocktail at the end of the bar.

"Alcohol tax," the stranger next to her grumbled. "What kind of bullshit is this? 'Not a necessity' my ass."

"That's sort of right though, ain't it?" someone else said. The bar was soberer than normal; nearly double prices encouraged patrons to drink more slowly. "No one's gonna die from not having a beer. It aint' like… bread or…" His brow furrowed as he tried to think of another life staple. It was hindered by the fact that despite his words, he'd already consumed a considerable amount of non-necessary alcoholic beverages. A glimmer of memory sparkled in his eyes and he declared, "Or vegetables. Can't live without vegetables. That's what my mom always said."

"Yeah, well considering how few vegetables are being grown lately, beer kinda makes up for the fact that we don't have any."

"Everythin's too expensive. Lamp oil! I lit my house with blastia every day o' my life and now I have to spend my hard-earned wages on _lamp_ oil. Thanks, Ioder."

The drinkers fell into assorted mutterings about all the new expenses in the post-blastia world. When the conversation seemed like it might drift to other topics, the dark-haired woman said, "Nobody asked us if we wanted to get rid of the blastia, did they?"

"No! No they did not!" the lamp oil hater slammed his bottle on the bar. "'Necessary for the continued existence of the world', they said! Well, what if I don't care about the rest of the world? No one asked me."

"I bet rich people can afford vegetables," the vegetable eater said. "Their old mothers aren't complaining about food prices."

"Why do we have to pay more for food anyway? It's not like we ate the blastia."

The woman traced salt from around the rim of her glass and then licked her finger. "It's oppression."

"That's right," another woman said. "They put a tax on tea, too! That's like forcing me to drink booze instead, but they taxed that too! I'm not paying that much for tea!" Nobody pointed out that the impoverished tea drinker could apparently afford the three bottles of beer she'd been though tonight alone.

"It's the damn Council," Lamp Oil said. "Making all these rules. I bet they get cheap sugar and tea. Those guys over in the Comet might be right. We need to change the way the Council works."

"That's right!" Vegetables cheered. "We should turn it around and make _them_ pay _us_!"

"I should be on the Council," the tea drinker said. "I could really turn it around."

"That's what we need, yeah. Good, sensible people on the Council."

The woman idly swirled her drink around her glass. "It seems to me that trying to reform the Council is like refurnishing a house on fire."

The other drinkers turned their eyes on her. "Eh?"

She looked up from her drink. "Oh, don't quote me on this. I don't really know too much about politics." She smiled innocently. "But I think that if the problem is that the Council is oppressing us, then the simplest answer is to get rid of the Council."

The others had to think about that for a moment. "But… who would make laws and stuff?"

She shrugged. "I don't know. Maybe we could make our own laws."

"Yeah…" Vegetables said dreamily. "I could make lots of good laws. I bet my laws'd be better than the Council's."

"It would be illegal to make new taxes, for one!" Tea Drinker declared.

"What do we need the rotten Council for, anyway?" Lamp Oil said. "All they do is sit around and take our money and tell us what to do. I could be a great law maker and I don't need to be a noble to do it!"

Once the seed had been sown, the rest of the bar quickly latched onto the idea of making their own laws. Alcohol was a great lubricant, the woman thought. She'd barely needed to push the idea. They already thought they were better than nobles, and they already thought the Council was corrupt, so all it took was a little nudge and the blind enthusiasm of beer to grease the wheels and those ideas would crash together spectacularly. They were still excitedly explaining to each other everything they'd do without the Council and how much better things would be if they were in charge when the woman finished her drink and slid a few coins to the barman. Her job complete, she slipped out of the building.


	3. Here and Gone

**Chapter Three: Here and Gone**

The day before Flynn was leaving for Mantaic, he met with Sodia in his office. "It's good to see you again," he said, smiling after she entered.

"You as well, sir."

There was a long silence and Flynn regretted parting ways so soon after that conversation they'd had. When the Adephagos was destroyed and the crisis resolved, they'd headed back to Zaphias to prepare for Ioder's coronation. There had been several days of running around in a chaos trying to pull everything together, but then the night after the coronation, Sodia had pulled him aside. They needed to talk, she said. What followed had been a long, painful discussion about events that had happened at Zaude. Flynn wasn't proud of everything he'd said and it had included far more shouting that he would have liked, but in the end, they came to a resolution. Flynn was impressed with her resolve to clear the air herself, and decided to forgive her. Well… not forgive, because there were some things that were unforgivable, but he could decide that there were other things that were more important.

He'd promoted her to captain shortly after. If he had to be honest, he'd admit that part of it was fuelled by not wanting her by his side all the time because he was still angry with her, but her performance history played a role as well. He'd sent her and her newly formed brigade north to the Peyoccian Plains to deal with monster hordes around Halure. He hadn't seen her since she rode out of Zaphias last summer, and now he regretted not taking the time to figure out how their relationship was going to work now.

"Have you been briefed on the situation in Zaphias?" he asked in lieu of a proper conversation.

"I have." She sat on the other side of his desk, hands folded in her lap, sitting awkwardly straight. "I've been getting reports throughout the winter, but I was informed of the whole situation once I arrived. It certainly seems like a precarious situation. I'm honoured you chose me to fill in for you."

"I'm sure you've earned it. How are things in Halure?"

"Better than here, but partly because there aren't as many people to cause a problem."

"Still disputes between mages and locals, then?"

She nodded. "It hasn't turned to any kind of violence yet, but there is a lot of tension in the air."

"Let's hope it doesn't escalate. For here, just try to hold the fort. Don't make the citizens any angrier than you have to, but don't give the Council a reason to kick you out, either. Hopefully nothing major will happen, but if it does, I trust your judgement."

"Thank you, sir."

Someone rapped on his door and then Alice stepped in. "Excuse me, sir, Lieutenant Leblanc wanted me to inform you that his men have arrested a suspected member of the Agents of Liberty."

Flynn perked up like a rabbit. "Really? That's excellent!" He jumped to his feet. "Is he in the cells?"

"She's being held in an interrogation room. Leblanc thought you'd want to talk to her yourself."

"He thought correctly. Sodia, I'm sorry to cut this short, but go ahead and start settling in. I need to talk to this person."

"I understand, sir. Good luck."

"Thanks. And thank you, too, Alice," he said as he brushed past her. It was rude to cut his meeting short, but he'd been waiting for any news on these damn revolutionaries for weeks. Finally, they had one!

Flynn could barely contain his excitement when he reached the interrogation rooms near the cells. Leblanc was waiting for him beside the door. He saluted when Flynn approached.

"Good afternoon, sir!"

Flynn nodded in response. "Afternoon. What are the details?"

"The suspect is named Henrietta Dart. She was apprehended after she tripped over a cat and a handful of seditious pamphlets fell from her coat. She was also carrying a used paintbrush, presumably having just graffitied a wall nearby."

"You really caught her red-handed, huh?" His birthday had come early.

"She had one more thing that I found interesting." Leblanc pulled out a small canvas pouch. "She was carrying these. I don't know what to make of them."

Flynn took the bag and peered inside. It was filled with… marbles? He pulled one out and rolled it around his finger. They were the same size and shape as a marble, but made of matte metal. "They might be ball bearings," he suggested.

"That's the only thing I can think of. I don't like to think these rebels are building some kind of machine, though."

"Hm… well, thank you. I'll talk to her." The ball clinked back into the pouch and Flynn entered the room.

Henrietta sat at a table with her hands cuffed. She had black hair in a braid and fury in her eyes. "Oh, lucky me. I get visited by the commandant himself."

"Good afternoon, Miss Dart." He took a seat across from her. "You know who I am already, but you can call me Flynn. May I call you Henrietta?"

She turned her head with a huff. "Call me whatever you want. You have nothing on me."

"You were carrying pamphlets advocating the overthrow of the government."

"So?" Her eyes snapped back to him. "Where's the law that says that's illegal?"

Flynn hesitated, because she was right. There was no actual law prohibiting possession of such papers. Acting on the activities proposed was certainly illegal, and in the past merely promoting them would get you arrested by law enforcement that didn't much care, but Flynn wasn't going to be like them. As the law stood now, being caught with those pamphlets was not, in itself, an illegal act. "They prove you have connections to an anti-government group. What can you tell me about the Agents of Liberty?"

She shrugged. "I dunno. I've never met any of them."

He stared at her, hoping she'd crack under the weight of that obvious lie. When she didn't, he said, "You were carrying an entire stack of pamphlets. You obviously weren't simply given one by an agent. You are a distributor, and therefor one of them."

"I am not. I've been collecting the ones I find lying on the ground. Didn't want my city getting littered, you know? I was gathering them all up to throw away."

He waited again, but she seemed to be sticking to this lie. "O…kay. So, let's pretend that's true for a moment. What do you have to say about the sullied paintbrush found in your possession?"

"I was painting my windowsill."

"And then you just stuck the used paintbrush in your pocket."

"Right. I was borrowing it from a friend, so I had to return it. I was on my way to his house when I gathered those pamphlets on the street to throw away."

"What are these?" he asked, pulling out the metal balls.

She shrugged dismissively. "Marbles. I play with my little cousins."

He pulled one out. "They're made of metal."

"Our games of marbles can get pretty intense."

He leaned forward. "What are you building?"

"I'm not building anything with marbles. That would be silly."

"Henrietta, I know none of this is true. Neither of us thinks for a minute you aren't involved with the Agents of Liberty. However, I believe you aren't one of the instigators. You're just a rank and file member, right? You're not on our priority list. If you give us names or information about the leaders, we'll let you go."

Her lips twitched into a smile. "You're going to let me go anyway, because you have nothing on me."

"Except the evidence of graffiti and seditious pamphlets literally found on you."

"You think you know what I was doing with this paint, but can you prove it? It's not a crime to carry a paintbrush and it's not a crime to be in possession of such pamphlets. You have no proof of anything. You can throw me in jail without evidence or cause if you want, but that's not going to look good to the populace already on the brink of distrusting you, is it?"

They locked eyes. She was right and he knew it. Everything she'd done bore all the markings of illegality, but if he looked beyond the trappings he had to concede that she had not, in fact, broken any laws. He had no solid proof that she was involved with the rebels and no cause to hold her in prison. He hated sitting here and watching her know she'd won.

Flynn stood abruptly. "Thank you for your time."

Outside, Leblanc looked to him expectantly.

"Useless," Flynn said, shaking his head. "She won't talk, and we have nothing to actually charge her with. Possession of pamphlets and a paintbrush is not a crime and we can't prove she was doing anything unlawful with them."

Leblanc sighed. "I suppose you're right. Damn, and we'd finally caught one of them."

"Have knights keep an eye on her. She just might lead us to something concrete." With enough wishful thinking, maybe he'd have an actual instigator in the cells waiting for him when he got back.

* * *

Rita dragged Estelle by the arm toward the coach house. "Come on, you talk to the guy. They like you."

"I still don't understand what the problem is." Rita had spent the last few days tweaking her blastia and adding the finishing touches, and was now eager to get to Zaphias and report her findings. Estelle, who was looking forward to a reason to visit Flynn, had sent her to book a coach to the city.

"That bastard wouldn't take my money!"

"Did you give him enough?"

Rita just gave her a look.

"Ok, I believe you." Knowing her, Rita had probably insulted the clerk.

Rita threw open the door to the office. "You go book the coach."

The man behind the desk glared at Rita and started to say, "I already told you, I don't - oh! Your Highness! I didn't realize it was for you."

"Hello." She smiled sweetly as she walked up to the desk. "Yes, my friend and I would like to travel to Zaphias as soon as possible. May we charter a coach?"

"Of course." He pulled out a book to record the transaction. "Anything for you, ma'am."

After the arrangements were made, Estelle thanked him and then said, "I'm sorry for my friend's behaviour. She can be rather tactless."

"Hey!" Rita crossed her arms, but the clerk gave her a dismissive glance.

"It's not just her, it's the whole lot of 'em."

Her heart sank. Oh, so that's what this was about. To confirm, she said, "You wouldn't book with her because she's a mage?"

"Look," he pointed his pen, "we built this city from the ground up. Then boom, Aspio disappears overnight and suddenly we're supposed to play host to a city's worth of freaks? They're taking up space, eating our food - food that's in short supply, might I remind you - and strutting about like they own the place even though half of 'em are useless freeloaders ever since the blastia disappeared. I don't want 'em around and I don't do business with 'em."

"But their home was destroyed," Estelle said. "Where else were they supposed to go?"

"That ain't my problem. I'm happy to help you, though, Highness. You saved our tree, so I gave you a discount."

"Well… thank you for that." She supposed she couldn't force someone to do business with someone they didn't like. It was his prerogative to refuse money from someone, but that didn't mean she had to like it.

Outside, Rita said, "See? I told you it wasn't my fault."

"I'm sorry for doubting you. I can't believe that man would reject you just because you're a mage."

"Whatever. It's his loss if he doesn't want mages on his side when we get blastia working again."

"Are you going to take your blastia to the other mages now?"

Rita flipped her hand in her pocket, no doubt running her fingers over the red stone. She hadn't let it out of her sight since last night. "No, I'm going to report Zaphias first. Right now, this is the only blastia in the world and it's going to take a while before they can be produced on a mass scale. Deciding who gets blastia first and for what purposes is going to be a huge hassle."

Estelle nodded. "Yes, it seems like it would be."

"I don't want to deal with that political stuff, so I'll present my findings and let Ioder figure it out."

"Ok, then I won't tell anyone you have it. My lips are sealed!"

* * *

Flynn was on his way back to his office when someone called his name. This was followed by running footsteps, and then someone crashed into him as he turned around.

"Flynn!" Estelle nearly knocked him over. "It's so good to see you!"

When she pulled away and Flynn was able to breathe again, he beamed and said, "Good afternoon, Lady Estellise. I didn't know you were visiting Zaphias."

Rita walked up behind him. "We're just here to drop of some of my research. I wanted to talk to you about it. Can we go to your office?"

"Sure."

As they walked, Flynn filled them in on the interrogation he'd just had. When he'd finished, Estelle frowned. "I knew the situation here was tense from the letters you've written, but this is serious. I wonder what those marbles were for?"

"If these rebels are using them, it can't be anything good." Back at his office, Sodia had left. Flynn sat at his desk and said, "Now, what did you want to show me?"

"This." Rita pulled a red stone out of her pocket and placed it on his desk.

Flynn frowned and stared at it. "What is it?"

Rita crossed her arms. "What does it look like?"

Flynn picked it up and ran his fingers over the smooth crystal. "It looks like a blastia, but…" He looked up at her smug expression and set it back on the desk. "Did you really?"

Estelle couldn't contain her excitement. "Rita finished it a few days ago! She can cast fireball again and everything!"

"But what did you use for a core?" Flynn asked. "I thought all the blastia cores were absorbed."

"Yeah, so I figured out a new power source. The old ones were powered by fragments of apatheia, which is basically crystallized aer. I figured that since mana and aer are essentially the same substance, there should be crystallized mana somewhere. I found powdery residue around the tree where the blastia used to be. My theory is that when the aer being produced by the tree's blastia was converted into mana, small amounts crystallized into a powder. If you gather enough of this powder and press it together, it turns into a crystal. I'm calling them mana fragments, and I put one into the blastia body in place of the old core."

"Wow. Impressive work."

Rita shrugged, like inventing a new power source that would impact the entire world was no big deal. "Yeah, well, I would have been able to finish faster if I had a larger research pool. It's too bad Yeager died."

"What does Yeager have to do with this?" Estelle asked.

"I based the new formula on Raven's heart. Since his blastia automatically converted to using his body's mana instead of aer, I was able to reverse engineer a general mana formula. It would have been easier, though, if there were more people with heart blastia to base my research on. Plus, I wouldn't have had to spend so much time with the old man." She wrinkled her nose in distaste. "I've seen Raven shirtless enough to last a lifetime by now."

"At least you've accomplished your goal now." Flynn would prefer to move the conversation on from picturing Raven shirtless. "What do you plan to do with it now?"

"Well, you're the commandant. My research is funded by the Empire so I guess it's up to you and Ioder."

Flynn stared at the red stone on his desk. It was such a simple thing, but it could change the course of history. In the past, blastia were numerous and inconsequential. Now that it was the only one around, it was like having a sword when everyone else was left with clubs. There was only one blastia in the world, and he could think of dozens of people who would literally kill for it. The good thing was that it was only a game changer as long as only one person had them. Once they were mass produced again, it would be easier to distribute. Until then, the argument over what cause got blastia first might spark a civil war faster than the current crisis. With all the mess in Zaphias already, he didn't want this potential catalyst anywhere near the city.

"Take it back to Halure and focus on producing more of them. You can bring a few other mages into the loop but I'd rather this stay mostly unknown for now. I'll discuss it in detail with His Majesty later to figure out how we're going to distribute them."

"I think you should leave any research notes you don't need here," Estelle said. "Just in case. If anyone got their hands on both the blastia and the notes, it would be disastrous, so we should keep them separate."

"Ok, but where else am I going to put them?"

"I hold onto them here," Estelle looked to Flynn. "I've decided to stay in Zaphias for the time being, so I'll guard your notes while you're in Halure."

Flynn frowned. "I don't know if that's a good idea. The situation here is highly unstable."

"I know, and that's why I want to stay. If things are getting dangerous, I want to help."

"Estellise, you would be safer in Halure."

Estelle planted her fists on her hips. "I'm staying here, Flynn. I'm still the princess and Ioder might need my help. I'm not running away just because it might be dangerous."

Flynn wanted to argue, but if he hadn't been able to bring her back to Zaphias during her journey, he knew he wasn't going to be able to keep her away from it now. Sometimes he wasn't sure if the decisiveness Yuri had rubbed off on her was a good thing, but he couldn't deny he was proud of how much she'd grown since she first left the city. "Just as well. His Majesty and I are leaving the city tomorrow so we could use a royal figure to take the head."

Estelle smiled. "Yay! See, I knew it would be good for me to stay."

"I'm having dinner with Yuri and the others tonight before I leave; you two should join me. I'm sure they'd be pleased to see you."

Estelle bobbed her head. "That sounds like a lot of fun."

* * *

He had half an hour until their carriage departed. It was a short drive to the harbour due west, and then their ship would depart for Mantaic. All his belongings were already packed and sent to the carriage, so he had half an hour to look through today's mail and sort out any last minute duties before leaving the reins in Sodia's hands.

His fingers brushed the handle of his office door when someone dashed down the hall toward him. "Commandant!"

He looked up in surprise and saw Reinette hurrying toward him. "Lady Alkaev? Is something wrong?" She had better not be here to complain that their meeting next week had to be rescheduled.

She panted for breath when she reached him. "You need to come to the Council chamber. Maybe you can stop it."

"Stop what?"

"I'll explain on the way."

Whatever mail was waiting for him on his desk, it couldn't be more important than the situation she had fetched him for. They walked briskly down the hall and Reinette launched into an explanation.

"Everyone was upset that you released that young woman yesterday - the one with revolutionary ties."

"None more so than me, I assure you."

"Even so, they decided to do something about it."

Flynn immediately dreaded finding out what this 'something' was. "What now?"

"They are on the cusp of passing an emergency decree making it unlawful to produce or be in possession of any anti-government communication, or to voice anti-government sentiment in a public space."

Were he alone, Flynn would have reacted with a curse. Considering his audience, he just said, "That is not good."

"No. Unfortunately, there were only a small handful of votes against the measure. His Majesty can't veto it with this much support from the Council."

"What do you suggest I do?"

Reinette gave him a desperate look. "I don't know. Anything. They didn't listen to me but maybe with another voice you can at least lessen the restrictions."

Flynn picked up the pace. He didn't know how much he could do, but he had to at least try. That law was far too broad. Someone could be arrested merely for mentioning that they didn't like some aspect of the government in a bar! Making it illegal to criticize the government was the fasted way to ensure everybody had some criticism.

They reached the Council chamber and Reinette followed Flynn in. Conversation ceased and they looked up as Reinette sidled around to her seat on the left wall.

"Oh, Commandant," someone said. "You aren't needed today."

"I heard you were considering a new law that would restrict free expression."

"Of course you would phrase it like that," a woman said, rolling her eyes. "The purpose of this law is to protect the citizens of Zaphias and crack down on revolutionary schemers."

Flynn stood at the door, with a row of Councilpersons on both the left and right staring at him. Usually he had time to prepare before delivering a speech, but today he would have to wing it. "I understand your intention. I, too, wish to eliminate any seditious sentiment within the city. However, I do not believe that banning such speech will solve the problem. If we make it illegal to openly critique the government, that conversation will simply go underground and make it more difficult to monitor. In addition, it will only anger more people and increase anger toward the government."

"I see," a man said. "I bet murder would be easier to monitor if it was legal, too, hm?"

"That's not the same. Voicing dissatisfaction with the government doesn't actually hurt anyone."

"You're too late," the woman from before said. "If you didn't want us to make this law, then you should have proven you don't need it by getting information out of that rebel you brought in yesterday."

"The Commandant is right," Reinette slapped her palms on the table and leaned forward. "The number one cause of dissent is a divide between the rich and the poor. And they're right to dissent! They have no say in anything that happens in this empire, but their lives are affected by our decisions as much as anyone else, plus they make up the majority of the population. If we want peace, we need to work with the commoners, not against them. Every restriction we give them is just fuel for their resentment."

"I'm tired of your bleeding heart nonsense, Alkaev," a man said. "Commoners don't have the necessary education or political familiarity to know what's good for them. If we gave them any sort of power, they'd make a mess of it."

Flynn tried to ignore the eyes turning his way.

The man went on, "As the ruling class, we must care for them like children. As the saying goes, spare the rod and spoil the child. We must crack down on this misbehaviour and show that we mean business and will not tolerate hate mongering."

"I do not support this measure," Flynn said. "I think it is short-sighted and ill-founded."

"Your support is not needed," someone else said. "You can either enforce the law as per your job or resign."

Yuri's words came back to him and he thought, or I can defy the Council and lead the Knights in a coup to overthrow you. He couldn't, of course. He was trying to keep the peace, and starting a war was the precise opposite of that.

When he couldn't provide any counter, a Councilman said, "You are dismissed, Commandant. You have no reason to attend this meeting. We will have the emperor sign this measure into law shortly."

Flynn left in defeat. Around the corner, he stopped to lean against a pillar and take control of his frustration. He could already imagine how angry Yuri was going to be with him, but what was he to do? His goal was to change the Empire from inside, and he'd known when he started that it would be a long process. He couldn't throw away his career making a pointless stand now, because then he wouldn't be able to nudge it toward actual change later down the road.

He couldn't seethe for too long, though. It was already time to start heading to his carriage if he wanted to make it to the ship on time. He considered running back to his office just in case, but knowing him, he'd get caught up in something and wind up making everyone late. Anything there could be checked by Sodia.

* * *

Seagulls cawed ship waited at the dock while sailors carried supplies up the gangplank.

"Have a good trip," Yuri said, leaning against a wooden building. "Might be nice to get out of the city for a while."

Flynn gazed at the ship. "I don't know how much I'll be able to relax while worrying about everything."

"Tell you what, if anything major goes down, we'll fly out on Ba'ul and let you know."

Flynn turned back with a smile. "Thank you. I feel much better knowing news can get to me within a day."

"Don't worry about a thing, Flynn," Estelle said. "We'll hold the fort here."

"I'm worried about the new law. It's going to cause unrest."

"Can you blame them?" Yuri didn't like it one bit. He understood why Flynn couldn't defy the Council without causing even more unrest, but he was still irritated. He didn't want to see the lower quarter take up arms and get themselves killed, and the more stupid shit the Council pulled, the harder it would be to convince people like Tom that they shouldn't do that.

"There isn't anything we can do about it, is there?" Estelle asked.

Flynn shook his head. "Not now. His Majesty signed it into law just before we left. He didn't have a choice."

"That's dumb." Yuri kicked a pebble in frustration. "He's the emperor! He should be able to do whatever he wants!"

Flynn raised an eyebrow. "Really, Yuri? You want an emperor with unchecked power with absolute say over what is or isn't legal?"

A million ways that prospect could go disastrously wrong plagued his head. "Ok, no. You know what I mean. I hate that the stupid Council strong-armed him into it."

"It's going to take a long time before we see real change," Flynn said. "However, I'm sure it will come eventually. Most of the contrarians on the Council are old and have been there for years. His Majesty and I, and some of the younger members, want to see progress. With time, the old members will die off and the younger generation will make things better."

"Yeah, eventually." That was great, but saying 'things will get better next generation' was not going to pacify the people who were so desperate for reform they were considering violence.

Ioder crossed the dock to join them. "Good morning, Estellise, Yuri."

"Good morning!" Estelle chirped. "I'm sorry I didn't get a chance to visit with you before you had to leave."

He smiled. "Don't worry about it, we can have lunch when I get back. Are you ready to go, Flynn?"

Flynn nodded and looked to the ship. "Yes. Is everything ready to go?"

"All that's left to board are passengers. We should get going."

"Time to say goodbye," Flynn said. "I'll see you in a week."

Estelle hugged him again and Yuri punched his shoulder in farewell. After he'd walked away, Yuri jerked his thumb at the tavern behind him. "Want to grab a bite to eat before heading back to Zaphias?"

"Sure."

The only things on the menu were fish, which neither of them particularly liked, but it wasn't horrible. In truth, Yuri might have been stalling. Zaphias wasn't a pretty place to be lately, and putting off his inevitable conversation with Tom about the new law could be put off a bit longer. When they'd licked their plates and decided they couldn't make the coachman wait any longer, they headed out.

Flynn's ship was just a speck on the horizon by now. Yuri stood outside the coach with his hand shielding the sun, squinting to see it. Hopefully Zaphias would still be relatively stable by the time he got back. Estelle was getting settled inside and Yuri had just put his foot on the step when galloping hooves rushed onto the dock.

Estelle poked her head out the window and Yuri rounded the carriage to see Sodia leaping off a horse and running to the dock.

"Where's the ship?! Has it departed?!"

Everyone stood around in shock had at her rushed appearance, so Yuri stepped up. "It's over there." He pointed to the distance, where he could make out a black speck on the horizon. "What's the rush?"

Sodia whirled to the sailors milling around. "Prepare another ship! We need to bring that ship back right away!"

"What's going on?" Estelle had hopped out of the carriage and stood beside Yuri with concern.

"I found this message in the commandant's mail." Sodia handed the paper to Estelle and then ran off to prepare her emergency boat.

Yuri read the letter in Estelle's hands and his heart dropped into his stomach.

 _Flynn -_

 _Do not board the ship departing to Mantaic today. An explosive implement was smuggled into the hull. You must cancel the voyage or risk the lives of everyone on board._

 _\- a friend_

Estelle looked to Yuri with fearful eyes. "We need to stop his ship."

They ran after Sodia, who was busy shouting at dock hands and trying to figure out who owned the small boat nearby. Yuri was just about to hop in a boat, figure out how to sail on the go and apologize to the owner later when a boom thundered across the ocean. With mechanical dread, Yuri turned his head to the distance to see pillar of smoke rising from the horizon.


	4. That Empty Feeling

**Chapter 4: That Empty Feeling**

Yuri squeezed Estelle's shoulder. "We'll find him." There was the unspoken hope that when they did, he would be among the bodies that were still alive. Every boat at the harbour that could make it had set out for the pillar of smoke, and now small fishing boats littered the area. The largest chunks of the ship still poked out of the sea. It looked like the explosion had originated in the hull near the stern, blasting the rear end of the ship open but also destroying the cabin section and a good portion of the main deck.

There were a lot of bodies to pull up, but not as many as Yuri would have hoped. So far, Yuri's boat hadn't found anybody alive yet, but they'd pulled up a few corpses, as well as a few parts of corpses. They had no idea how they could identify the owners of these parts, but it might be the only part that got back to the families and they weren't just going to leave them here to get eaten by mermen. Most of the bodies belonged to the sailors rather then the entourage of knights, since most of the knights on board would have been dragged down by armour. Flynn had been wearing armour, too, Yuri thought grimly.

"Look!" Estelle pointed and leaned forward. Yuri grabbed her waist before she toppled over the side of the small fishing boat. "There's someone moving!"

The sailor who owned the boat rowed toward the blond head bobbing in the water. Yuri let his hopes rise, but when they got closer the treading figure turned his head and revealed himself to be Ioder.

"Your Majesty!" Sodia shouted. "Don't worry, we'll pull you in."

Ioder clung to half a crate and had blood streaked down his face. When their boat pulled up next to him, he threw himself at it and managed to cling to the side. Yuri and Sodia leaned over the side to grab his arms and pull him into the boat. He fell against Yuri, soaking wet and coughing. His body shook and he gasped for breath. Yuri propped him up while Estelle leaned in to cast a healing arte.

"We really need to stop meeting like this," Yuri said.

Ioder spared him a smile that lasted less than a second. He shivered and accepted a stiff blanket that reeked of fish from the sailor. "Th-thank you."

"I'm so glad you're safe." Estelle took a seat next to him on the bench. "I was so worried."

"It's thanks to Flynn." Ioder pulled the blanket tighter around himself. After drifting in the ocean for over half an hour, he didn't seem to mind the smell. "We were talking near the front of the ship when the explosion happened. In less than a second, he threw himself in front of me and grabbed me. He shielded me, and we were both thrown into the water."

"Flynn's nearby?" Yuri's hope spiked again and his eyes darted across the water.

Ioder shook his head. "I don't know where he is. The mast nearly toppled on us. We got separated and I don't know where he went."

Sodia stared into the choppy grey sea. "Was he wearing armour?"

Ioder looked to his knees and took a long silence. "Yes," he murmured. "He was."

"We can't give up hope," Estelle said. "He might have found something to cling to the way you did."

"How much longer can you stay out here?" Sodia asked the sailor.

The man looked to Ioder. "However long His Majesty wishes us to keep looking, ma'am."

"Keep going as long as you can," Ioder said. "We need to find Flynn, and any other survivors."

The search continued and Yuri refused to lose hope. Just beyond their reach, a severed arm drifted across the sea.

Sodia grimaced at the sight. "Your Majesty, what exactly happened?"

"I'm not really sure. The explosion came out of nowhere. It looks like a blastia explosion, but obviously that can't be."

"Who would do such a thing?" Estelle asked.

"I'd bet anything it was those so-called Agents of Liberty." Yuri scowled at the sea. "I guess handing out leaflets and shouting about reform wasn't good enough for them anymore."

"There might be some silver lining here," Sodia said. "They can no longer claim to be non-violent. We have every reason to crack down on them with every force necessary to prevent another attack."

As the search dragged on, Yuri received a new-found empathy for the pain Flynn must have gone through after Zaude. They rowed around drifting barrels and corpses to add to the pile in the stern of the boat. Flynn had to be out here somewhere, even though none of the ships searching for survivors had found him yet and the wreckage was growing still. The ship was nearly completely submerged by now, and all that bobbed in the sea were bits of wood and supplies.

"I think," Ioder said almost an hour after they'd found him, "it might be time to head back to shore."

"No!" Estelle gripped the edge of the boat. "We can't go back yet. We need to keep looking for Flynn!"

Yuri and Sodia exchange a look behind Estelle's back. It had been over an hour and the ocean was cold. Flynn's only chance of survival was clinging to something that would keep him afloat even with armour, but cold water sapped strength and after this long, there was no way he'd still be able to fight gravity. He didn't want to believe it, but there was no point rowing around in circles staring at an empty ocean. The other ships were starting to head back and Ioder was still cold and wet.

Yuri forced himself to say, "We should head back."

"We can't!" Estelle gave him a pleading look. "Yuri, how can you say that? We can't give up on him. Flynn might show up any time now."

The sailor looked to Ioder who nodded once. They turned toward the shore.

"But…" Estelle frantically looked between the others. "No… we can't just… give Flynn up for dead…"

Yuri struggled to talk because it took a lot of focus on his facial muscles to keep his expression steady. "I'm sorry."

Estelle threw herself at Yuri and pressed her face into his shoulder. She took shuddering breaths as Yuri held her tight, partly for her benefit and partly to find comfort himself. They were really heading back. They weren't going to find Flynn. Flynn was most likely dead. His arms around Estelle shook and keeping his expression neutral made his face ache. No matter how hard he tried to push the image out of his mind, he couldn't shake the idea of Flynn drifting down into dark water. With all that armour weighing him down, he knew there was no hope of recovering his body. If they had that, at least, he could try to wrap his mind around the concrete evidence of a corpse, but Flynn was just gone.

The ride back to Zaphias was silent. They stopped in the lower quarter to let Yuri off, while the others were heading back to the castle. Yuri grunted his goodbye, hugged Estelle, and then walked to the Comet in a fog. With every step, he was certain he'd wake up and realize this had all been a nightmare.

"Hey, Yuri!" Karol and Judith sat on the steps of the Comet, eating lunch. How could they be so care-free? Couldn't they feel that the world had been thrown off-kilter? Karol waved, but his smile vanished when Yuri got close. "Yuri? What's wrong?"

Yuri stopped in front of the stairs. Judith and Karol both rose to their feet and stared at him with concern while Yuri's mind tumbled through a haze to figure out how to even put this into words. "There was… an explosion."

"At the harbour?" Judith asked.

"Someone planted something on the ship." The words wouldn't come naturally and he had to force his mouth around every sound. "It blew up at sea. Flynn's gone."

Karol and Judith were silent for a long moment. Finally, Judith spoke. "Oh, Yuri…."

"Estelle's at the castle. I'll be in my room if you need me."

They wordlessly stepped aside and let him march up the stairs to his room. The walls trembled from the force of slamming his door and Repede looked up with curiosity. As soon as the door was closed, Yuri fell against it and smashed his fist into the wood with enough force to hurt.

"Fuck," Yuri seethed. "Dammit, dammit!" He approached his bed, but didn't make it and dropped to the floor next to Repede. He leaned against the side of the bed and reached for the soft fur on Repede's neck.

Repede whined and rested his head on Yuri's lap. His eye questioningly looked to Yuri's face.

"It's Flynn," Yuri whispered. If Repede minded how roughly Yuri was petting him, he didn't make it known. "There was an attack. Repede… Flynn's dead."

Repede growled and Yuri wasn't sure how much Repede understood. He was very smart for a dog, but there was a difference between knowing to grab gels when his master was hurt and understanding abstract concepts like death. What if Repede thought Flynn just never came to visit him again? How was he supposed to make sure their dog understood what had happened?

If they only had a body. Yuri was getting really fucking sick of burying empty coffins. It had been the same after Flynn's dad died, and all they got back was a uniform and a sword. Apparently the Knights had a policy about mailing gnawed bones to widows. Well, when they were kids, Flynn always did aspire to be just like his dad.

Why did it have to be him? Yuri felt a pang of guilt at wishing Ioder had been the one to drown and Flynn the one to be pulled from the sea. No, he didn't want Ioder to be dead. He was as good an emperor as any and the kid had never done anything to offend him. It just pissed him off to think that the attack had most likely been targeting the emperor, and now Flynn was gone but Ioder was still here.

From his pocket, Yuri pulled the crumpled paper Sodia had delivered. He'd forgotten about it during the stressful search of the wreckage, and now the edges were damp. He could still easily read the message. Someone had known the attack was coming, but who? It was just signed 'a friend'. If they were really a friend, they would have signed their damn name so Yuri could track them down and kick their ass for delivering the warning too late. A message like this shouldn't be stealthily slipped into a mail tray! If this alleged 'friend' had simply shouted the warning to any knight, Flynn would probably still be here.

He felt like he should know who the author was. Something about the handwriting rubbed at a memory in the back of his mind, but for the life of him he couldn't place it. Whoever this friend was, Yuri was certain he or Flynn did indeed know them, but that didn't help him pinpoint an identity. Besides, what was the point? Knowing who tipped them off wouldn't bring Flynn back. Nothing could fix this, and Yuri didn't feel capable of doing anything but sitting here, stroking Repede's fur, and wishing humans didn't possess emotion.

* * *

Sodia stood in Flynn's office, staring out the window. No, it wasn't Flynn's office anymore, was it? Commandant Flynn was dead. Her fingers on the windowsill curled. He was gone. After all they had worked for, everything he had accomplished, they dream of reforming the Knights… it was all lost to the bottom of the ocean. And who was to blame for that? That was the important thing to worry about now. It was those damned revolutionaries, the alleged 'Agents of Liberty'. Revolutionaries? She wouldn't dignify them with such at title. Terrorists was more like it. So they didn't like how the government worked? Good for them; neither did she. But she had joined the Knights to change it and constructively work to make the Empire better. She hadn't started blowing things up and smashing things like a child who wasn't happy with the toys she had!

They needed to be stopped. It was a stroke of luck the emperor hadn't been killed and she wasn't naive enough to think they would be content with killing just Flynn. They'd been getting progressively more bold, and the next time they struck, there would be more casualties. What were they doing with those ball bearings, for example? Perhaps they were building a weapon. The mightiest weapon had been the Heracles' cannon, but with blastia gone, maybe they were working on some mechanical device that would tip a fight in their favour. After all, a group of rebels couldn't hope to stand against the might of the Imperial Knights on their own. They must have some ace up their sleeve and she wouldn't rest until she found out what it was.

The door opened and she turned to see Ioder. "Good afternoon, Your Majesty. You're looking well."

"Thank you. I'm lucky Estellise was present to immediately heal me this morning."

It was only this morning that she'd said goodbye to Flynn. How could life change so quickly and with so little warning?

Ioder skipped right to his reason for visiting. "If you're willing to take the responsibility, I would like to appoint you Acting Commandant."

Sodia's mouth opened for a few seconds before responding. "I'm honoured, sir."

Ioder couldn't keep the sorrow from his face as he explained, "Flynn left you in charge when he left. I think he would have wanted it this way. I proper replacement for him will of course need much more discussion and approval, but with the way things are now… the Knights need a leader. I'm certain he would approve you being the one to take the reins."

"I will do my best, sir." Her first order of business would be cracking down on the unrest. She could not allow another attack.

"I was thinking we should have a memorial. A lot of people lost their lives today."

Sodia managed a tense nod. "Yes… that sounds like a good idea." Not just for Flynn, but for all the Knights and sailors who were on the ship. That was why these terrorists could not be allowed to continue. They weren't just taking out political figures, they were willing to kill innocent civilians who were in the way. A lot of the civilians in Zaphias thought the Knights were cracking down too hard, but they didn't yet appreciate what these Agents were capable of. Against an opponent like that, any measures necessary were justified. Hopefully this attack would sway them to the side of the Knights. "We should make sure this memorial highlights the fault of the terrorists and that they acted not just against the Knights or the government, but against the innocent civilians serving as sailors. We can use this to unite the city against the insurgents."

"Good plan. In the mean time, the new law outlawing seditious communication went into effect today. I wasn't keen on it, but now that they've proven how extreme they're willing to go, maybe it is good. Anyone who continues spreading such things must be extreme, and maybe can lead us to the leaders."

"Yes, sir. Finding the leaders of these terrorists will be my top priority. I'll do whatever it takes."

* * *

When Yuri and Flynn were fifteen, the owner of the Comet made a deal with them. Help out around the inn, clean rooms, bus tables, help in the kitchen, and stay in one of the rooms for free. It was the first time since Flynn's mom died that they'd had a roof over their head that they could be certain would still be available the next day. He could still see Flynn's smile the first time he threw himself on the bed, or Flynn's ashamed horror when a guest next door banged on the wall and told them to shut up at one in the morning. They'd had a lot of good times here, and even though Yuri had lived here on his own for years, it had never felt so empty.

Someone knocked on his door and when he didn't answer, Judith stepped inside. "Have you moved at all since you got home?"

Yuri didn't look up from Repede. "Nope."

Judith sat beside him. "Are you doing ok?"

Yuri's fingers curled around Repede's fur. "Been better."

"I'm sorry about Flynn."

Yuri sighed heavily and raised his head for the first time in hours. Amazingly, the light outside had turned pale grey. He really had been here all day, and a sudden growl of his stomach reminded him just how long ago those fish fingers had been. The last time he'd eaten, Flynn had still been alive. "When we joined up, we had an old sergeant handing out uniforms for the first time at training. We were a bunch of cocky kids dreaming of glory, but this guy gave this angry speech that was mostly shouted and peppered the guys in the first row with spittle. Flynn kept glancing at me smugly every time this guy shouted about professionalism and not taking this lightly and how much responsibility we had." Yuri smiled tightly at the memory of Flynn desperately trying to impersonate a lamp post with how straight and rigid he was standing. "Smarmy son of a bitch. Anyway, I barely remember most of what that sergeant said. The only part I remember is when he said, 'you bastards can't wait to put that uniform on to impress the ladies, but you better remember that the moment you put on a Knight uniform, you accept that you might die in it.'"

They sat in silence for a long moment and then Judith reached her arm around his shoulders and squeezed. Her attempt at a hug was rough and inexperienced, but Yuri appreciated the effort.

"You should eat something," Judith said. "Karol is worried about you."

"I am a little hungry."

"Why don't we go downstairs and have a drink?"

"Yeah. That sounds like a good idea." He'd have a drink in Flynn's memory. Judith sprung to her feet, but Yuri had been sitting motionless for so long his joints were stiff. He felt like moss had to fall away on his way up, and then he looked to the door with a sigh. It was time to face the world, even though he wasn't much interested in a world sans Flynn.

The Comet was crowded when they entered. They were centred around the car corner and speaking in raised voices.

"…bullshit," someone was saying. "I didn't even want to speak out against the government until they said I can't!"

"Yeah!" came a chorus of agreement.

"What have done to them, even?! We just said we wanted a voice in the government and now they're saying we can't carry weapons and can't criticize them?"

Yuri watched them while sitting at the bar. Tom was in the centre of it all as they shouted their grievances. Yuri couldn't entirely blame them, because he wasn't thrilled with the government's latest decisions either. If he had the energy to spare feeling motivated, he might have joined them.

"Here," the bartender said, placing a bottle of beer on the counter in front of him. He gave Yuri a sympathetic smile and said, "On the house."

Yuri grunted his thanks and took a sip, which turned into a gulp. Flynn would be so pissed if he could hear the yelling now. All he had wanted was to maintain the peace, and every action the Council took pushed the peace closer to the tipping point.

Judy ordered some food and then said, "Karol and I visited Estelle."

Guilt flickered through him. He'd let them drop him off and then sulked in his room for hours while Estelle was no doubt just as devastated as he was. He should have been there for her, just like he should have been able to do something for Flynn. If only he had - Yuri downed another gulp of beer before those thoughts could consume him. "How is she?"

"No better than you'd expect. Rita had to leave to go back to Halure, so she's feeling very alone."

"I'll visit tomorrow." He didn't feel up to walking across the city tonight, and besides, he wasn't allowed into the castle without an invitation after dark. Behind him, the rest of the neighbourhood was still busy shouting about the government. How could that be their biggest concern right now? Flynn was dead, countless other people on the ship were dead, and they were angry about some weapons bans? Yuri hated the laws, too, but there were more important things to worry about tonight! He chugged the rest of his bottle and then gestured at the bartender for a second.

"I'm worried things are going to get worse from here." A plate of chicken wings came between them and Judith pushed the plate at him to demand he ate.

Yuri halfheartedly nibbled the wing and nodded. Of course things were worse. Flynn was dead.

"As far as I know, Sodia has been put into command. I'm sure she's a very qualified knight, but… she's never excelled at morally grey situations."

Yuri nodded. After setting his bottle down, he said, "I don't know who else I'd want in charge, but you're right. I hate the bastards who blew up the ship as much as anyone, but that doesn't mean they don't still have a point that the Council and the Knights need work."

"No doubt she's grieving, too. People don't always make the best decisions when they're grieving."

"The Knights are going to crack down on the protesters, which will make the protesters more adamant about protesting…. I'm calling it, Judy, this is going to get worse before it gets better. The Council is fucking up and this is the opposite of what Flynn would have wanted." His teeth gnashed on a chicken bone.

"Maybe we should head back to Dahngrest." Judith ate her wings with considerable more delicacy.

Yuri's beer bottle smashed into the counter. "No. I'm not leaving. You and Karol can get out if you want - I wouldn't blame you, you're not locals. This isn't your business." He took another long swig and then rubbed his mouth on his sleeve. "But this is my damn city and my stupid neighbourhood causing trouble. If they're going to get themselves hurt, I'm going to stick around and help however I can."

"I understand." She chewed for a moment and then said, "No… I suppose I don't. I was never close with my neighbours or felt a strong connection to the location I lived. Mt. Temza was destroyed when I was still rather young and I never really fit in in Myorzo." She smiled at him. "But I understand that your city is important to you, and I want to help. I don't have a hometown of my own, so I'll help you protect yours."

"Heh, gonna have a hometown vicariously through me, huh?"

"Something like that. I'm sure Karol will want to stick around, too."

He managed to raise his cheeks in the faintest smile. A few years ago, if Flynn died he would have been lost. Sure, he was buddies with loads of people in the lower quarter, but he had never had friendships anywhere close to the bond he had with Flynn until he met the others. In his grief, it felt like he was drowning, too, but having another close friend beside him kept him buoyed. "Thanks."

He finished his beer with one chicken wing left, so he called for another.

"Are you sure?" asked Judith, who was still halfway through her first.

There was a hole in his heart and alcohol could fill it, or at least numb him enough so he didn't feel it. "Yes."

* * *

Bar stools were stupid invention. "Ow." Yuri banged his knee on one of the rod-thingies - rungs, yeah. He'd taken a trip to the thing-room. Bathroom. Weren't baths in there. Weird. Why do they call it that? Right, anyway, to the place to piss. And now he wanted to sit but the stool was too tall and the room wobbled and he clutched the counter.

"I think it's time to head in," Judith said.

"Go 'head. I'mma stay a bit." He leaned against the bar 'cause stools were dumb and grabbed his half-empty bottle.

Judith grabbed it on its way to his mouth. "I'm pretty sure you've had enough."

He yanked it out of her hand and then lost his balance. He bumped into the guy next to him, who shoved him back with an annoyed look. "Hey! 'M not done yet!"

"How many bottles have you even head!"

"I, uhhhh… I'unno." He chugged as much of the rest of it as he could. "Prolly inna dooble didgy… dobble thing… more 'n ten."

It was all… all… good. Ok. 'Cept it wasn't, 'cause Flynn… Flynn was dead but beer was here. Ha, that rhymed. Beer was here. Beer wa'eer. Ba-weer. What was he thinking about again? Flynn, right. Agony fluttered in a distant part of his brain, but there were almost three litres of beer between it and him. Good. Stay tha' way. Feels better not ta feel.

"We're going home." Judith grabbed his arm and tugged. Yuri stumbled forward and leaned on her for balance.

"Why're we goin'? Everon's still here." Sure enough, the crowd on the corner had only grown and some alcohol had probably been involved over there, as well.

"It's time for you to lie down and sleep this off."

Yuri let himself be guided across the room. He couldn't pay attention to what his feet were doing because when he moved his head, the people blurred and vision swam to catch up. Neat. He idly shifted his head, watching his brain try to orient itself. Swoosh.

Someone bumped into him, which completely threw off his balance and he fell to the ground. His head spun and then a man's hand grabbed his arm and pulled him to his feet.

"Sorry about that. Hey, you're coming tomorrow, right, Yuri?"

"Coming?" He wobbled to stay upright without Judith to lean on. "Why'm I comin'?" He snickered and added, "Heh, coming."

"To the rally. There's gonna be some pretentious Knight memorial for the ship so we figure it's a good time to protest. All the bigwigs will be gathered in one place and they can't ignore us!"

A night memorial? Whazzat? Ohhh wait, wait, it was prob'ly Knight, with a K. What a weird spelling. Yeah, right, a Knight memorial. Fora knights who died onna ship. Good, a memorial was good. Gotta memorialate dead people 'cause they're gone and fuck that includes Flynn, yeah? Flynn's memorial. The gov-ment was gonna have a nice cere… cere… thingy. _Mony_. For Flynn. They didn't hava body so it was kinda like his… his… what's the thing for dead people? Funeral. Flynn's funeral. Yeah, 'course he'd go! His best friend was dead, why wouldn't he go? Wait. Waaaaait. They were sayin' rally. A rally wasa… wasa… whazzit. A protest. Like picketering. There were gonna _protest_ at Flynn's _funeral_.

Yuri punched him in the face.

"Hey!"

"How dare you!?" Yuri bellowed and threw himself at the man.

He wasn't entirely sure what happened after that. A combination of alcohol and getting a few thumps on the head made his memory patchy at best, but he remembered the roar of a crowd and the flurry of fists. He remembered being so full of pain he was desperate to pass it on to someone else, and any body would do. There had been a lot of shouting, the shattering of glass, men crying in pain when Judith got involved to defend him, and the splintering of broken chairs. Yuri yelled throughout the entire fracas, although the exact words were lost even to him. It could have been fury that his supposed friends would even consider disturbing a memorial dedicated to Flynn and countless others' memory, but it was just as likely to wordless roars as his grief attempted to escape out his mouth.

He was vaguely aware of the door opening, something clanking and a voice demanding everyone settle down, but words took a while to translate to action in his state and Yuri had continued beating the man in front of him even when everyone else froze and tried their hardest to look like an innocent bystander.

"That includes you, Yuri Lowell!" Someone grabbed him and threw him to the floor. He landed on his chest and by the time his head stopped spinning, his hands had been cuffed behind his back.

"What the hell was going on here?" Leblanc demanded. "Who started this?"

A sea of fingers pointed in Yuri's direction.

"Thought as much. All right, Lowell, let's get you to the castle."

"Geroff me! I gotta - them basserds!" Someone pulled him to his feet, but with his hands behind his back he immediately lost his balance and toppled over again. His chin smashed hard on the ground and a tiny voice in the distant said that it likely hurt. They picked him up again and held him tight as he tried to struggle away. "I got asses ta kick! They're all _bastards_!"

"Wait!" Judith pushed through the crowd. "I'm sorry - he's with me. I'll take him home."

The knights shuffled him to the door. "Sorry, ma'am, it's not just a matter of intoxication now that he's gone and started a fight. We'll just let him sleep it off in a cell and release him tomorrow."

They stopped in the door and Yuri slumped against the frame. How was everyone else walking so normally when the floor was doing back flips? Something dripping on his chin, possibly blood.

"Don't worry," Leblanc said with a heavy voice. "We all understand why he was drinking tonight."


	5. Flynn's Legacy

**Chapter Five: Flynn's Legacy**

Rita entered one of the largest houses in Halure. When the refugees from Aspio first arrived, the leaders of the city had purchased it to use as their headquarters. The first floor had been almost entirely converted into a library, filled with every book they'd managed to salvage from the wreckage. Some were more than a little burnt or ripped, but even broken knowledge was better than none. The circular entry had a high ceiling lit by glowing lights suspended from a tree growing through the middle of the room She walked up the curving staircase and banged on the thick double doors opposite the front of the house. Without waiting for an answer, she barged in.

"Excuse me!" a mage named Cornelius said. "We were having a private meeting!" Cornelius was the defacto leader of the Halure mages. He had been the highest ranking scholar in Aspio to survive and in the aftermath he started bossing people around and telling them where to go. It had been a rather chaotic period and no one stepped in to say he had no right to give orders, so by the time they were settled it was just accepted he was in charge.

"This is more important." She pulled the blastia out of her pocket and placed him on the edge of the round table five other mages were gathered around.

"Is that…?"

"It can't be."

"Did you really do it?"

"Yeah, he's a blastia." She grabbed him when a woman started reaching for him. It took her a second to send a fireball out the window, which happened to be open. Rita honestly hadn't checked before sending the spell in that direction, but it was a lucky coincidence.

"Amazing," Rufus said. "I admit I had my doubts, Mordio, but you really pulled it off. What did you use as a core?"

Rita explained the mana fragment concept and then continued, "I only found enough around the tree to make a couple dozen fragments, and then a few of those were destroyed during testing, but I'm sure there's tonnes more scattered around the world. The next step should be to create a device that can automatically sift mana residue from surrounding dirt, like a magnet. For now I want to make the rest of the fragments I have into blastia."

"What do you plan to do with them?" Ilsa asked.

Rita shrugged. "I just want to produce these guys; the politics of how to distribute them is up to you."

Cornelius steeped his fingers and thought for a moment. "Hm… how quickly do you think you can produce them?"

"I should be able to do one a day at least. I already reported this research to Flynn in Zaphias and he told me to keep it under-wraps until we could mass produce them."

Cornelius nodded. "Yes, I agree. The last thing we want is the locals knowing we're capable of magic again."

"Huh? Why would that be bad?"

"It's just that they think we're harmless right now," Ilsa explained with a smile. "If they believe we could set them on fire with a word, they might completely turn on us."

"Oh, true." She'd received enough dirty looks from locals to know many of them already wanted to kick them out.

"Any more tension is the last thing we want," said Frances, the eldest member of the group. "There are already ridiculous accusations being lobbed at us for allegedly being involved in the destruction of the ship."

The council nodded solemnly to each other while Rita looked around blankly. "What ship?"

"Oh, that's right, dear," Frances said. "You've been on a carriage all day, haven't you? Simply awful what's happened."

"What is simply awful?"

"The ship bound for Mantaic, carrying the commandant and the emperor, was blown up by unknown assailants," Rufus explained.

Rita's eyes widened. "The one Flynn was on? There were survivors, right?"

"We only received a short message," said Cornelius. "News is that the emperor is alive and well, but the commandant tragically died in the incident."

Rita gaped at him. "Flynn is dead?" But she'd just seen him last night. Horror welled up inside, focused on Estelle. Rita had never spoken to Flynn much and couldn't say she was close to him, but two of her dearest friends were very much close to him and she couldn't imagine the suffering they must be in. Estelle so gushed about how nice and sweet Flynn had been in the years before she left the castle, and after spending so much time with Yuri on their trip, she'd wanted to kill Flynn herself if it would make Yuri shut up about him.

"So it would seem," Ilsa said.

"I need to return to Zaphias." Estelle must be devastated.

"And do what?" Cornelius demanded. "You're needed here. These new blastia are the most important technological progression in a century."

That was… true. The blastia needed her, too. Ah, dammit, she needed to be in two places at once! No, no, it was ok. Karol and Judith were in Zaphias now, too. They could take care of Yuri and Estelle, and she could take care of the blastia. "All right… fine. I'll stay here and work on the blastia."

"Good. And do keep your work private," Ilsa said. "As we mentioned, some locals think the explosion of the ship was caused by us."

Actually, that did make her wonder. Explosions from blastia were no problem, but what had caused this one to go off? Whoever planted it couldn't have a blastia, and what else could explode like that? "You're certain magic wasn't involved?"

"We can't be certain," Rufus said. "But we know it was nobody from Halure."

"You're aware of the unrest stirring in Zaphias, correct?" Cornelius said. After she nodded, he said, "There have been some debates here as well. Most of the locals side with the royal family. They're all still lovey-dovey toward the princess for helping them with the tree. The mages, on the other hand…"

"We work for the government too, though. We get money from them."

Rufus cleared his thought. "For being the operative word there. There are those who feel the Empire stifles our research and is too demanding. If a new government happened to come to power, well… maybe we could negotiate a more independent collaboration."

"Oh, sure." Honestly, she'd rather not get involved in the politics. She didn't mind working for the government because money came in and she got to do science without worrying about where it came from. "Well, I'll let you guys worry about that. I'm going to go get started on making more of these guys."

She left, holding the blastia tightly in her pocket. Getting blastia back was the happiest discovery of her life and she couldn't wait to create more of them, but first things first. She needed to write a letter to Estelle.

* * *

This wasn't the first time Yuri had nursed a hangover in a prison cell, but it was one of the worst hangovers. He lay on his side on the wooden board that was supposedly a bed. The night before lay scattered in his brain in blocky pieces like a shattered mosaic, but from what he could remember, he hadn't felt too bad about Flynn. All that alcohol had numbed the pain and kept him from grieving, but now it was back and stronger than ever. Maybe it was partly because he kept expecting Flynn to show up and yell at him for getting arrested again, and then reminding himself that that would never happen again.

Drinking last night had been stupid. There were important things going on in the city, and he'd spent the night so hammered that nails would sympathize. Yuri forced himself to sit up on the side of the bed and ignored the headache that throbbed to life with the movement. Someone had planted an explosive on Flynn's ship, and whoever had done it needed to pay.

Armour clanked and for a fleeting second he thought it might be Flynn walking down the hall. Instead, it was Sodia. She stood before the bars and stared at him for a long moment. "I was told you were brought in for having a brawl."

"Pretty much."

"You resisted arrest."

Yuri shrugged. "Possibly. Gotta be honest, I don't really remember."

She was silent again, and then unlocked the door and entered the cell. Sodia sat beside him and stared at her knees. "I miss him, too."

Yuri blinked. He hadn't seen Sodia since their journey and they hadn't exactly left on the best terms. He remembered her as being… sharp. She didn't pad her sentences for politeness' sake and she held herself in her uniform in a way that made it clear she would cut you if you crossed her. Yuri had concrete confirmation of that last part, actually. The rigidity of her posture and ferocity of her gaze was gone now as she sat in a hunch with eyes softened by moisture.

"I'm sorry I stabbed you. I don't think I ever properly apologized for that."

"Uh… thanks?"

A sigh so heavy it slumped her entire body left her mouth. "I don't have the energy to feud with you anymore. It all seems so… pointless. I was so concerned that you were tarnishing Flynn's image and morals, but I failed to save him. I was too late. So what was everything for?" She rubbed her face and then turned her weary eyes on Yuri. "Flynn is dead. We couldn't save him and he's not coming back. Will you help me catch the people responsible?"

"Thought you'd never ask."

Sodia stood and quickly rubbed her eyes on her sleeve before turning around. A twinkle of the familiar ferocity gleamed in her eyes. "Come with me, Yuri Lowell."

Yuri hopped up, wavered for a moment as his headache pounded, and then followed her out of the cell. Sodia led him upstairs to Flynn's office, which, he supposed with a pang, was her office now. She told him to wait and then left. Once alone, Yuri wandered to Flynn's desk. A smaller table had been set up next to it with the day's paperwork struggling to find real estate and an empty cup of tea in the corner. Flynn's desk remained exactly how he'd left it the day he departed.

Yuri fell into the heavy chair behind Flynn's desk and ran his hands along the wood. There was a rough patch on the underside of the desk and he imagined Flynn sitting here and idly picking at the splinters as he worked through a problem. He pulled the drawer open and found rows of pencils and pens precisely arranged by colour. "You nerd," Yuri muttered with a hint of a smile. He picked up a blue pen and moved it next to the red one and then imagined a flustered Flynn staring into his drawer in horror and meticulously moving it back.

Yuri opened more drawers. He pulled out a box of matches and saw Flynn carefully lighting a lamp on his desk so he could keep working long after the sun went down. In the bottom drawer, Yuri found a shiny green rock. A memory of picking it up, declaring it a magical amulet, and then giving it to Flynn as a present when they were nine flit through his head. On the bottom was a yellowing piece of paper which, when Yuri pulled it out, turned out to contain a crayon drawing of Flynn, Yuri, and Flynn's parents. Yuri knew that's who they were based on the scribbled hair colours, relative height of the blobs, and the labels. That took some guesswork too, since the label pointing at the blob with black scribbles around the head read 'yooree'. How old had Flynn been when he drew this? Five? Six at the most.

Yuri went to put it back and found another drawing lining the bottom of the drawer. This one had been done by someone much more skilled than five-year-old Flynn. A family friend who was good with charcoal, perhaps. It was another drawing of Flynn's family, but Yuri wasn't in this one. Considering Flynn sat on his mother's lap looking an age where he was only vaguely aware he was being drawn, that wasn't surprising. At this age, Finath looked more like Flynn than Flynn did. It was almost creepy. If Yuri covered the lower half of the face with his finger, the shape of the eyes, how the corners wrinkled with his smile, the way the brows curved - it was pure Flynn. Yuri looked back to the small child on Mrs. Scifo's lap, struggling to believe Flynn had ever looked so chubby-cheeked and clueless. _You're going to do so many amazing things_ , he silently told the child. _You're going to grow up and…._

He had to stop. Twenty-one wasn't 'grown up'. It was an adult, but such a young adult there were still decades more of growing to do. Yuri didn't think of himself as a grown up. Adults were independent, mature people who could take care of themselves and potentially others. Grown-ups, on the other hand, were people like Hanks or the Don. People who understood shit and knew what they were doing. People who weren't just clever but wise, and who had settled into a role and knowledge-base they could be satisfied with. Yuri was not a grown-up, but he hoped to become one some day. He still had years to grow up, but some bastards had stolen that chance from Flynn. Flynn could have become one of the best grown ups the world had ever seen, but now that would never happen and that made Yuri so angry it momentarily eclipsed his grief.

The door opened and Yuri hurriedly shoved the picture back in the drawer. He didn't want Sodia to catch him, but he wasn't sure if it was snooping or grieving he was trying to hide. Sodia had a glass of water and a sandwich with a roll of paper under her arm. As she entered, Yuri realized his eyes were wet and rubbed them before she got close enough to tell.

"Here." She put the food on the desk in front of him. "I noticed the uneaten plate of food in your cell. You must be hungry."

Yuri had been too busy throwing up into a cell's horrible excuse for a toilet to eat, so he thanked her and picked up the ham and cheese sandwich.

Sodia pushed his plate and glass out of the way and then spread a map of Zaphias out on the table. "I'd bet my left foot the Agents of Liberty are responsible for the attack. We need to find out who is organizing them and where we can find them. So far, I've been highlighting the areas that have the most rebellious activity. Graffiti, protesting, etcetera. The red represents the problem areas we need to focus on."

"I can't help but notice it's mostly concentrated on the lower quarter."

She glanced at him for a moment and then turned her attention back to the map. "Yes. I'm not trying to negatively profile your neighbourhood, but people at the lowest ends of the social ladder have the most to protest. Knights have become acutely unwelcome in many areas of the lower quarter. I need information, and I think the Agents are located somewhere there. I want you to use your connections and find out anything you can."

"You want me to spy on my friends?"

She raised her eyes. "I want you to spy on the people who orchestrated Flynn's murder. If you consider those people your friends, you can consider this alliance off."

Yuri scowled. "Right. I'll get to the bottom of this." He firmly believed that the people he considered his friends had nothing to do with the attack. The people rallying in the Comet just wanted to be treated fairly; they didn't want to hurt anyone. However, they might be able to point him to the people who did want to hurt someone.

"Do you know anything already?"

"Not much." His mind raced across his conversation with Tom and tried to sift the useful information out. He'd told Tom he wasn't going to be an informant for Flynn, and wondered if this made him a traitor. No, he decided. He'd promised not to tell Flynn, but Flynn was dead so that promise was moot. "The guy I know said their plan was just protesting and boycotting. They aren't involved with the Agents, who are more organized."

"You're going to need to infiltrate this group and get information."

"I'll do what I can." Everybody knew he was Flynn's best friend. After this, who would believe he wanted to join up with the people who killed him? Yuri stared at the map while is mind flipped through options. It moved slowly, still exhausted from the hangover. A night in the cells certainly wasn't the best start to a hangover cure. Yuri's head jerked up with inspiration. "Arrest me."

"I beg your pardon?"

"Keep me in jail today. Charge me with that new law about speaking out about the government. Search my house and find anti-government propaganda. Make it public, too - 'Princess' Friend Arrested for Treason!' kind of thing."

Sodia's face lit up with understanding. "They'll be convinced you're on their side."

"Then after a couple of days, I'll break out. On the run from the Knights, I'll need shelter. They'll have to be willing to help me then, especially since I have lots of inside information about the Knights, being the commandant's best friend." In the silence, both of them thought 'ex-commandant,' but neither was willing to voice it.

After the weight of Flynn's absence nearly knocked Yuri down, Sodia quietly said, "Do you have any other information?"

He searched his mind, because he was certain there was something else. "Wait… there was… they were saying something last night." Yuri rubbed his forehead and then took a long gulp of water. The fragments of his memory lazily dragged themselves together. "They're going to… protest. Soon. There's something going on. Was something happening tomorrow?"

"The memorial," Sodia said. "At dusk."

Yuri snapped. "That's it. There's going to be a protest at the memorial."

Sodia frowned. "They would interfere in a memorial for the dead? How indecent."

"Pretty sure that's why I started a fight last night. But it was the lower quarter people talking about it, not the Agents. It'll be non-violent."

"But I'm certain the Agents will have a presence. I'll have the knights prepared and on the lookout for anyone suspicious."

"Good." He simply couldn't stand the idea of anyone using Flynn's memorial for their own gains.

"If that's all, then I might as well arrest you now." She pulled a pair of handcuffs off her belt.

"Are those really necessary?"

"We might as well make a show of it. As much as I hate to admit it, it's possible Agents have infiltrated the castle. What would they think of they saw you amiably stroll to the cells?"

"True enough, though I can't help but feel you're a little overeager here." Yuri turned around and stuck his hands behind his back. "Go for it. I know you've always wanted to."

Sodia said nothing as she handcuffed him. "I'm going to tell as few people as possible about the situation, just in case." She gripped his arm and led him to the door. "So the knights on duty may be nasty to you if they believe you betrayed Flynn."

"I can take it." He'd only started being on good terms with the knights in the past year through Flynn and Estelle. Them thinking he was scum would just be a return to the familiar.

Sodia marched him through the castle. Yuri did his best to look angry and defiant, and glared at the surprised servants they passed. Most of them had gotten used to him wandering the halls with Flynn or Estelle, and were shocked to see him under arrest. When they reached the cells, Sodia said, "Here you are, Yuri Lowell. You can rot down here for all I care." She took the cuffs off and slammed the cells in his face before whispering, "I'll let Lady Estellise know the situation."

* * *

"It's a real shame the commandant's dead." A handful of people milled around the front of the castle as the stage for the memorial was erected. "He seemed like a good guy."

The group collectively nodded. "Certainly better than the last commandant."

"And he had a great ass."

"Margaret!"

"What? He did."

"Regardless, I liked Flynn. He always smiled and said thank you when buying things from my stall. Not all bigshots do that, you know."

"And he defeated the Adephagos, too. We wouldn't even be here if not for him."

"Yeah… it still seems so unreal, you know? I always daydreamed about bumping into him on the street and then he'd fall in love with me and I'd go live in the castle with him…." There was a heavy sigh.

"I wonder if there's going to be a proper state funeral for him. This memorial is for all of the victims, after all. I'm sure a lot of people want to pay their respects to him individually."

Another collective nod. It was a sunny morning in Zaphias, and with nothing else to do, the locals found entertainment in watching the workers construct the stage. Sometimes one of the workers smashed their finger with a hammer, which was always good for entertainment.

"At least Emperor Ioder will have more freedom." The group turned their heads at this new voice. A middle-aged woman had appeared on the fringe of the group at some point, idly watching the stage go up.

"Why do you say that?"

"Hm?" She brushed a lock of black hair behind her ear as she turned. "Well, because Flynn won't be calling all the shots anymore."

Puzzlement passed through the group. "Was he before?"

"Wasn't he?" The woman tilted her head. "I thought that was the common assumption. After all, it was the Knights who backed Ioder's claim to the throne. The rest of the government wanted Estellise. Then Flynn seized power under fishy circumstances and his top choice for emperor, a fairly young man, get sworn in weeks later? I always found that curious myself." 'Curious' was a good word. It didn't tell the listener what to believe, because minds are so reluctant to be told to change, but it made the mind wonder what was curious, inevitably leading to genuine curiosity. A curious mind was a malleable one.

"Well… he had to take over fast, didn't he? What with Alexei going bonkers."

"It was certainly convenient," the woman said. "Last year at this time, he was a simple lieutenant. Then he got promoted to Captain after the incident in Dahngrest. Something about him rising to prominence after he charged in on a white horse to single-handedly stop a battle."

There was a dreamy sigh from Margaret.

"Of course," the woman continued, "he only had the opportunity to do that because he just happened to switch up a letter, or so I heard."

"Is that what happened? I never heard the full story."

"Oh, no one did. I know it had something to do with some blastia thief from a guild and the late Councilman Ragou. I know there's a record of Ragou lodging an opposition to Flynn's promotion the night it happened, but that was never followed through, of course, considering he died under mysterious circumstances later that night."

"Now hang on, you're not suggesting…"

The woman shrugged. "I'm not suggesting anything. This is just what I've heard, and I've never really put too much thought into it."

"Yes, well, even if he became captain under fishy circumstances, you can't deny that he took the reins of the Knighthood in the middle of a crisis and saved us all."

"That's right! He destroyed the Adephagos!"

"Oh, now that you bring it up, maybe you can tell me." The woman smiled at the group that was now hanging on her every word. "I've always been curious about what exactly the Adephagos was. Do you know?"

The group faltered. "Well… it was…"

"Something to do with blastia."

"Yeah. And intelligent cakes? I remember a word like that."

"It showed up because of Commandant Alexei and it would have killed us all."

"Yeah! It was killing the world or something and then Flynn stopped it!"

The woman nodded in understanding. "Oh, I see. So it was a mysterious yet highly visible phenomenon the Knights assured us would have killed us, which only appeared after Flynn went up to the top of that shrine on his own. Does anyone know how Flynn destroyed it? In case it ever comes back, I mean."

The group exchanged glances. The public announcement had never specified exactly what Flynn had done. The official word was that the Adephagos was a calamity that would have killed them, and Commandant Scifo had destroyed it.

"I heard he was seen in Capua Torim the night it disappeared."

"That's weird. I wonder what he did there?"

"I always did wonder how one man could have done it."

The woman smiled and shrugged. "Oh, well, the Adephagos is gone so we don't have to worry about it. Flynn was a good commandant, so I guess it doesn't matter just where it came from, how he knew what to do about it, or how curiously convenient it was that it showed up just in time to give him a glowing victory to secure his position."

"It wasn't just because of the Adephagos that Flynn was made commandant… was it?"

"No, no, I don't think so. Ioder made him acting commandant right after the weird stuff that happened in Zaphias."

"Could Ioder even do that? He wasn't officially emperor yet."

"True. It would have been unofficial. I guess Flynn didn't actually become commandant until after the Adephagos and Ioder was crowned."

"Oh, I remember - there were a bunch of other high ranking captains protesting his promotion. Since he was so inexperienced they were against him taking the position full time."

"Right, but since he saved the day from the Adephagos, I mean who else has that kind of victory under their belt?"

"That sure was convenient for him."

"I hear he attended Council meetings far more than normal commandants."

"Yeah, me too. He was always trying to meddle in the legislative side of things."

"Wasn't he just supposed to stick to the military? Just how much control over Ioder did he have?"

"Hey, now that I think of it, wasn't he in the area when Captain Cumore disappeared, too?"

"Yeah… he was the one that liberated Mantaic or something. Captain Cumore went missing the same night."

"Kind of odd, isn't it? Two of his enemies went missing right after his triumphs."

"I notice he didn't bring Alexei in alive, either. I wonder what exactly happened at Zaude that kicked off the Adephagos?"

"And you know, whenever he came to my stall, he always spent so long picking out apples. Like he expected half of them to have worms or something. So rude!"

They were caught up in their conversation and not even paying attention to the stage construction any more. They also didn't notice the woman silently slipping away to leave them to their discussion.

* * *

Someone stabbed him in the shoulder, and Flynn jolted awake. His first instinct was to lash out at his attacker, and his left arm collided with a body. Someone grunted in pain and he pushed himself up - he was lying on his chest - but pain jolted through his shoulder again and he fell to the ground with a gasp. Not the ground, he realized as he struggled to turn his head from the pillow to breathe. A bed.

He was lying on his chest in a bed. There were pants below the sheet, but he didn't have a shirt on. The room was brightly lit, and the smell of salt drifted through an open window. Flynn croaked, "Where… what…?"

"Ow," someone whined and he turned his head to see a man rubbing his stomach. "That wasn't necessary." The man had a shock of orange hair and wore a lab coat that might have once been white but was so smudged with some black residue it was more of a smoky grey.

Flynn's shoulder still hurt, but he saw bloodstained bandages sitting in a discarded heap on the little table by the bed and then the pink-stained cloth in the man's hand and pieced together that he had not just been stabbed, and that in fact this man was cleaning an existing wound. "Sorry."

"It's ok. Lie still and let me finish cleaning this."

Flynn folded his arms under the pillow and braced himself for the cloth to touch him again. He flinched as the damp fabric dabbed the injury.

"Sorry. I know I'm not the gentlest. I'm not actually a doctor."

Flynn turned his eyes up worryingly.

"Oh, a bona fide doctor was around when you got here, but since there was other stuff to do and you're not in danger of dying, I was left in charge as your nurse. Neat, eh?" He laughed and added, "I'm not trained in this at all soooo tell me if I'm hurting you, all right?"

"This might sound…" Flynn cleared his throat. His mouth was dry and tasted like salt. "U-ungrateful, but… who are you?"

"Whoops, should have introduced myself, eh? Sorry 'bout that. Let me finish up here real quick and we can do proper introductions."

Flynn lay still and hugged the pillow as his unorthodox nurse finished cleaning the wound and applying fresh dressing. When he'd finished wrapping Flynn's shoulder in bandages, he said, "All right, you can roll over now. Slowly, though."

Flynn rolled to his left as the man pushed a bundle of blankets against him to keep him partially propped on his side. It kept his injured shoulder from pressing against the mattress. The man rounded the bed and crouched to face him properly.

"Now then! Hello!" He stuck out his hand. "The name's Alfred Gunne, but you can call me Al. Nice to meet you!"

Flynn awkwardly reached his left arm across the mattress to weakly shake Al's hand. "Flynn Scifo."

"Ha, I'm well aware of that. Anyway, I'm sure you have a lot of questions, but let me get you some water first."

When Al disappeared, Flynn was able to concentrate on what he already knew. There had been an explosion, he remembered that. He had foggy memories of clinging to a piece of wood while the ocean churned around him, but how had he gotten here? And more importantly, where was here? This seemed to be a hospital room, but he could hear waves crash outside the open window. He couldn't be in Zaphias, but where was there a hospital on the coast? It couldn't even be a proper hospital, or else he'd have a nurse who'd been trained and not some guy in a dirty lab coat filling in.

His mind drifted to others. Ioder. Had Ioder survived the explosion? He must have. Flynn remembered throwing himself in front of him, and he was pretty sure that was when he'd been stabbed by a splinter of exploding ship. Ioder wasn't wearing armour, so he would have been fine in the ocean. Probably. Then there were his friends, who must be worried sick about him. He had already surmised he wasn't in Zaphias, so he had to assume Yuri and the others didn't know he was alive. He felt guilty just thinking of the pain that would cause them.

"I'm back!" Al marched into the room with a tray. "I brought you some soup, too. You've been asleep for more than twenty-four hours; you must be starving."

Hunger had only barely awakened, but the smell of soup quickened it. "Yes, thank you."

"Ok, sit up and you can have lunch."

Flynn cautiously manoeuvred himself upright, using his right arm as little as possible to avoid hurting his shoulder. When he was leaning against the pillows between him and the brass bars of the headboard, Al placed a table on his lap followed by a tray with water and a bowl of creamy soup.

"Here you go! Hope it's good."

Flynn gulped half the glass in one go. "Thank you."

"Now, I can explain while you eat."

"Even better. I know your name is Al, but that doesn't tell me much about where I am. Just who are you?"

"Personally, I'm an inventor. Scientist. Whatever you want to call it. If you mean us as a group, though, let's say we're… independents. Most of us used to be knights."

Flynn's spoon paused on its way to his mouth. "You're rebels?" Had he been blown up by insurgents only to be rescued by _different_ insurgents? Just how many of them were there?!

"I don't know if I'd call us _that_. And, look, I can't give you very much information because our leader said he wanted to explain to you himself."

"And who is that?"

"A former knight. Don't worry, he's a cool guy and I know for certain he means you no harm. As for where you are, you're in an abandoned research facility off the coast of Ilyccia. According to geographers, it's called Cord Island."

"What kind of research?"

"Military, and things that can be used to support that. This was Alexei's little pet project."

Flynn frowned. "I'm the commandant. Why wasn't I made aware of this?"

"Probably because he never told anyone. Most of the stuff that went on here was… less than legal. And even less ethical." Al's jovial smile faded. "A lot of awful crap happened here, and I'm not proud of any of it. After Alexei died, everyone running the place jumped ship. Some researchers washed their hands of it all and went home to pretend they'd never been involved, while others didn't really have a home to go back to. A lot of the subjects were like that, too. We'd all… changed here. We became each others' family, and took over the facility." His smiled returned. "Thank you for overthrowing Alexei. These have been some of the best months in my life now that we're free to live as we please here."

Al's story disturbed him and Flynn had trouble remembering to keep eating. "Just what sort of research was Alexei doing?"

"Weaponry. Blastia and… otherwise."

Flynn chewed a piece of potato in his soup as he thought. "An otherwise that could explode a ship without blastia, perhaps?"

"Eh… heh… Look, I swear that wasn't us. We tried to warn you that the Agents had planted a bomb on your ship, but you didn't get it in time."

"And how did you know what they were planning?"

"Our leader said he'd explain everything to you, so I'll leave most of it to him. We _do_ have connections to those guys, but those connections were cut when they went radical."

Flynn was starting to get very curious about who this leader might be, but Al didn't seem like he was going to answer that question. "When can I return to Zaphias?"

"A few days, maybe. We only have one boat and don't make frequent trips to the mainland, plus with your injuries it's not safe to move you anyway."

"I need to get in contact with Zaphias. They must think I'm dead."

"Sorry. I want to help, but we don't have the resources to send messages right now. We'll get you home as soon as we can, ok? For now, just sit tight, rest up, and we'll get you home as soon as possible." Al hopped to his feet. "For now, I need to get going. You stay in bed and holler if you need something. Get well soon!"

He took the finished dishes and left Flynn alone. Flynn sighed and settled on his side. His shoulder hurt the most, but he had plenty of other minor aches and pains. He was lucky to have survived that attack, but now he had a load of new information to grapple with. A secret research facility off the coast? Why hadn't he known about this? Alexei couldn't have been the only person to know it existed. Other high-ranking knights had to have been in on it, and possibly Council members. He should have been told. Flynn wasn't sure if he was more angry with these hypothetical people for keeping him in the dark or with himself for remaining ignorant.


End file.
